Dragon's Prey
by Chris Kenworthy
Summary: Maxx saves Lizza's life at Ruath Hold when she's accidentally stabbed during a sudden knife fight. But that day changes Lizza's life, when she finds out that Maxx is a stranger from the stars, and that Dragon Riders are hunting for him and his friends.
1. Chapter 1

It's the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Year one hundred and ninety-eight of the Interval, and yes, that's a bit ominous. Since I was a child I've been taught how the Interval will end in the year two hundred and Thread will fall from the sky again. But still, that's over a year away and at the moment, I do have other concerns.

I suppose that first of all, I should make my introductions. My name is Lizza, I'm seventeen Turns old, and I'm proud to be one of nearly a thousand dependents of great Ruath Hold, in the most beautiful valley of the Northern Continent of Pern. My father, Parker, is a Master Baker who has lived and worked at Ruatha since he got his Journeyman's knots, and my mother is also a talented cook in her way, mostly gifted in stews and soups. Together they have started a small, intimate kitchen on the third level of the Hold, which by the given word of Lord Holder Jerood, my father runs as surely as if it were his own small Craft Cot.

It sounds from that as if my life should be filled with promise, and perhaps it'll yet be so. But something strange beyond my imagination has happened, and it is this that drove me to start a journal, writing down the events of my own life as if I had pretensions of being like Lady Nerilka, living through the plague and marrying the widower Lord. Anyway, the whole thing started yesterday morning.

I was doing drudge-work in the Klah Lounge, (that's what my father's kitchen is called,) fetching and carrying, as I do to spend much of my time. Father and Mother hoped that I would inherit some of their craft, or at least basic cooking skills, but I'm mostly hopeless with preparing food. I'm still not sure what I'll make of my life, if I don't just marry and have lots of kids, or keep drudging.

I know I'm bright, (and always full of curious questions,) but I don't have a good enough voice to make it as a Harper, and not strong enough to try my luck at the smith-craft. I'm too - too fastidious to be a beast crafter, or a healer, or a fisherwoman... and the list goes on. More than anything, I'm fascinated by trying to find out the way the planet works, from the way the landscape is fashioned by forces mostly unseen, to the unusual beauty and function of the smallest insect - but nobody gets room and board for trying to answer questions like those, my father says.

So, anyway - I had just delivered a red fruit pie and was on my way over to ask if two other diners wanted anything else to start their morning off right when a knife-fight broke out between them, starting way too fast. I've seen duels before, and my mother always said to just back away if one began in the Lounge, but I didn't even realize what was going on before I was between them, and one of those big men screaming about how he _had_ to have his marks before tomorrow, and not an eighth of a mark less than what I was owed.

I was actually starting to run before I realized that something was splashing on my feet, and looked down to see what had been knocked off the table. To my immense surprise, a knife was falling away from my black tunic, and the stains on my legs and feet were red, redder than red fruit juice even. I saw the ragged hole that had been torn in my tunic, and was feeling to see how badly I was hurt when my legs gave way from under me. I don't even clearly remember hitting the floor.

"Open your eyes," a firm voice commanded me. I didn't really want to do anything, least of all that, but the owner of the voice continued to beg and plead a few times to look at him, and finally I cracked my eyes open for a second, just to satisfy a bit of curiosity more than anything else.

Maxx was staring down at me, and the world held still. At first, I didn't think that there was anything so unusual about that effect. I did feel a faint pain in my midriff and a lot of stickiness all over that part of my body, but that certainly didn't seem too important. My thoughts wandered around Maxx in a lot of different ways in that moment, and I don't think I could put them in order and make sense, but I'll recap some of the high points so that you can understand them.

My best friend Mari and my parents tease me about Maxx a lot - that he likes me, that I like him, that we'll be espoused in a few years. (At least, I prefer to think of it as 'teasing' from my parents, because I can't quite come to grips with the notion that my parents are really expressing serious opinions in my love life, or lack thereof.) I can't deny that he's cute, with this dark and sensitive streak a dragon-length long, but I've never caught him staring back in my direction like Mari says he always does. Maybe he's just good at covering it.

As big a place as Ruath hold is, it's still small enough that everybody really knows everybody else's story, so even though I've never talked much to Maxx, I know the details of his family and so on - his father's a kind of a Harper Journeyman, who lost most of his voice so he can't sing anymore, and isn't great with instruments, but he's the most respected Arbiter of law in three holds, so that alone gives him a good position. (Nice work if you can get it, I think!) Father says that 'Journeyman Evan' should have gotten his Mastery years back, except that he'd made some friends unwisely back at the Harper Hall.

Let's see, what else about Maxx? He has one sister, Izabella, and is taking his apprenticeship with Master Healer Whitman. Which would make me think that his first reaction on seeing somebody stabbed in a duel that didn't concern her would be something practical like bandaging the wound and applying pressure, not yelling at her to open her eyes and staring at her...

But all of a sudden Maxx wasn't staring into my eyes any more, and he hadn't started treating a wound in my belly either. As I struggled into a half-sitting position, propped up with my elbows behind me, I caught sight of him at one of the tables across the narrow aisle from the two I was lying in between.

There was no immediate sign of the two diners who had had the argument, or Mari, or my parents. There were a few other diners, mostly huddled far away as if they were afraid that what had happened to me were contagious, and just as I realized that, Maxx hurried back over to me, carrying something - a big dish of red fruit syrup, which we keep a couple of around to drizzle on palm cakes. Bending over, he deliberately spilled the syrup all over my lower body.

I was about to loudly protest this, knowing that spilling stuff into an open wound is a great way to get infected and die unless you're sure that whatever-it-is is sterile, but Maxx shushed me imperatively and gestured at my abdomen. Unsure what that was supposed to mean, I ran a hand over the area where I knew the knife had gone in, over the sticky fabric of my tunic, trying to figure out how badly Maxx had messed me up - and couldn't find any trace of the wound. Totally surprised and scared in that moment, I looked up at Maxx.

"Don't give me away, Lizza," he whispered, and took off for the side exit.

My head was spinning as Mari rushed in from the kitchen proper and started assuring me that she'd called for the Healers, and the Hold Steward, and so on. "Don't die on me now, Lizza," she finished. "I'm not ready to..."

"I... I'm okay, Mari," I muttered, standing up. "There's hardly a scratch on me."

"But... but the blood," Mari muttered. "If not yours, then whose blood..."

"Not blood," I muttered, hoping that I could pull off this part of Maxx's scheme. A few things were starting to make sense, and the only reason I could think of for him to pour out the red fruit syrup was to confuse the fact that I'd been bleeding, to cast doubt on the fact that I'd ever been hurt at all. I doubted that myself, but whatever Maxx had done, if he wanted me to do this for him in exchange, and I was going to live, then I'd go through with it for the time being. "Just red fruit syrup. It got knocked over me when I fell, and drenched the knife."

Mari obviously didn't seem satisfied with that explanation, but a Healer showed up in that moment, not Master Whitman, but one of his journeymen who could move quicker, (and was probably not far away.) After the healer had confirmed that I was alright, my parents were both there to be reassured and hug me, and then it was the Steward, who had questions to ask us both about the diners, especially the one who had pulled his knife first. Duelling isn't generally a matter for Hold Discipline if it's handled properly, but there are rules to make sure that bystanders don't get hurt, and none of those had been followed this time.

I went back to the family rooms after talking with the Steward, to bathe in heated water from the deep places far underground. I also tried to wash off the tunic, but it was pretty much a wreck between the obvious red fruit syrup stains, and a few others whose color definitely didn't match. I couldn't find any rent where a blade had torn open the fabric, though, any more than I could find a wound in my own skin - but there was a faint mark of a different kind - a glowing silver handprint on my belly. Had - had Maxx touched me there, while I was staring into his eyes, and done something to save my life? I couldn't even remember feeling his hands on me.

So I wrung out the tunic as best I could, and wadded it up into the bottom of my wardrobe, until I could figure out a better way of getting rid of it, and dressed in a fresh gray outfit. I'd been expecting to go back on drudge duty once I was all freshened up, but Mom was in the drawing room, and refused to let me go back to the kitchen right away 'after giving me a fright like that,' so I found a pen and some ink and sheets of hide, and started to write down what happened to me.

I still don't know what to make of what happened. I've heard a lot of improbable stories about unlikely happenings, but can't even remember one about a person who could - could heal wounds just by laying his hands on them. Such things simply don't happen on Pern. So - was I imagining getting stabbed in the first place? No, that doesn't make sense either - why the different stains? Why would Maxx have spilled the syrup onto me?

I'm going to have to find some way to confront him about it, if I can find a way to dare so much.

#

I had lunch with mother after I finished writing, and lay down for a bit, but I couldn't sleep, just had all kinds of things running through my head, about what I should do next, and who I could trust. As much as I love my parents, I'm not sure how they'd react if I started telling them impossible things about being cured of a stab wound in my guts, especially after... well, I shouldn't get ahead of myself here.

I did think that my best friends could be trusted with the secret, probably. There's Mari, who I've mentioned before as having been around the kitchen when the fight broke out - she does drudge work there too, and we've been best friends since we were just tots, almost like sisters, except - not quite. My parents know Mari's mom, they're friendly but not best of friends or anything. Mari's father isn't around, which is really a very bitter story. He was searched to get a chance to impress a dragon at Fort Weyr when Mari was just a few months old, and he promised Mari's mother, Amada, that if he impressed he'd fly back to Ruatha and take them to the Weyr so that the three of them could be a family there. But he impressed a little bronze dragon, and he never did come back for her. Amada lives with her brother's family now, and she works a knickknack stand at gathers all over - buying and selling little amateur woodwork and jewellery at prices below what the official Craft hall merchandise would go for. Mari has to share a room with one of her cousins in her uncle's apartment too, and the cousin's a spiteful girl. I'd let Mari move in with me if I could, but we don't really have room for a second person in my room, even if I could get my parents to go with that arrangement.

So, there's Mari, and possibly also Aless who I might be able to tell about what's happened to me, though I'm not sure about that. Master Whitman, who's apprenticed Maxx, is Aless' father, and actually Aless is an apprentice Harper, though he doesn't study much with Maxx's father, though that would be an interesting case of switch-around. It's a bit odd for there to be so many apprentices around here at Ruatha, since we don't have a major Craft hall of our own, but apparently the apprentice dormitories at Fort Hold are just full up, so Healer Masters and Harper Masters all over Pern are being encouraged to take on apprentices of their own, and so I guess they're taking advantage of that.

So anyway, after running over all that and more in my head, and 'experimenting' a little with some magnifying lenses that I bought at the Crom gather earlier this summer, there was a knock at my door, and my father told me to 'pull myself together' and come out into the drawing room as soon as I could. That's a sort of a code in our family, it meant that there was an important visitor or a client who wanted to order some expensive pastry from Father, and I shouldn't do or say anything to embarrass him. I took about half a minute to make sure that I was dressed as respectfully as I could manage, came out, and nearly fainted.

An honest and true Dragon Rider was standing in our drawing room, with his hands on his hips and not far away from the door into the communal hallway. I could tell that he was a Rider because of the leather flight suit that he was wearing, and possibly also because of the look in his eyes. "Ahh, hello Lizza," he said as soon as he saw me. "I'm so sorry to disturb your rest on a day like today, but it was important that I could ask you just a few questions."

"Of course, my deepest duty to you..." I froze at that point, because I didn't recognize this particular Rider from the names that we'd had drilled into us, and nobody had introduced him to me by name. There was simply no respectful way to ask a Rider to identify himself, was there? I stared at him, trying not to make it look like I was gawking, but searching for a clue to his identity. A bronze rider from Fort Weyr, by the shoulder knots on his leathers. Could this be Mari's father? What had his name been...?

"I'm sorry, I forget my own courtesies in my excitement," the Rider said, gesturing to the chairs and stepping close to one of them. "My name is D'Peerce, and I am bronze Spakinth's rider. I'm also an experienced Wing-leader from Fort Weyr, and I've been very impressed with your father's baking for years, though I don't get the chance to indulge as often as I deserve." Keeping his tone joking, D'Peerce shot an aside over to Father. "Parker, you really should reconsider the Weyrleader's offer to set up in our Lower Caverns personally."

"Do Dragon-riders have more of a right to excellent baking than mere holders?" Father shot back at him, just casually. "I know that Fort Weyr would treat me well, but - my family and I are happy here at Ruatha."

D'Peerce took that with a calm nod. "My duty and that of the Weyrleader to you and your family - Lizza. Now, I'm sorry to have to get you to tell the story all over again, but - what happened to you this morning in the Klah lounge?"

"Umm - there's not that much to it, really," I muttered. "Two men got upset with each other, almost started a duel. I was too close, got knocked down, syrup spilled all over me. A few people thought that I'd been cut and was bleeding, I guess, but I only got scratched a bit from falling on the stone floor. Everybody's making too much of the whole thing, I think - well, except that they weren't being safe with their knives, and that's a serious thing. But as far as me..."

"I do understand that, up to a point," D'Peerce said, leaning over a bit and looking intently into my eyes. His own irises were a sort of a dark greenish with a slightly brown tinge to them. "But there are a few things that don't add up. Like Hawthiss - he was one of the customers who were involved in the incident, you know. A carter based in Southern Boll, just passing through - he'd gone to a lot of trouble to deliver fragile glass panes to a client here in Ruatha, and needed the marks to fix up his wagons and keep them on the road. That's why he was upset enough to draw a blade - but Hawthiss tried to sneak out of the Hold without his wagons, because he was desperate to get away before the Steward found him. Do you realize why, Lizza?"

I was starting to get the idea, but knew I had to play dumb, so I just shook my head, hoping that Father wouldn't insist that I answer out loud. My voice might give away too much nervousness to even be explained by the Rider. After a moment, D'Peerce continued. "Hawthiss was certain that he would at least be banished from all Holds on Pern - not just unwelcome here at Ruatha, but that Lord Jerood would send word to Southern Boll to blacklist him there, and add his name to the Harper's lists of outlaws that are circulated everywhere. He was even worried that he might be flown to the remote islands, marooned and unable to return to the continent. Because Hawthiss was certain that he'd stabbed a serving girl, not just knocked her down. He was quite clear on that point, and you wouldn't expect him to be confused on a detail like that."

I was just speechless by this point, but my father had no such problem. "With all due respect, Wing-leader, are you accusing my daughter of lying to you?"

D'Peerce looked over at Father and smiled. "By no means, Master Baker - at least, not of speaking an untruth on purpose. After all, a healer examined her after the incident, and found no hurt, is this not so?" We all nodded vehemently. "So, Lizza gets in the middle of the fight, she could hardly know for certain what happened in that moment, she falls, she wakes, possibly not even remembering 'going between' or waking from it, and finds herself unhurt. What other explanation could a reasonable person come to? That is, a reasonable person who is not aware of certain quite extraordinary things."

"Extraordinary things, like Hawthiss' delusion that he stabbed her?" my mother nearly cried out.

"More extraordinary yet," D'Peerce continued. "I will tell you some of them, so that you will understand the significance of what has happened. Some fifteen turns ago, when you were but a babe in your mother's arms, Lizza, and when I was yet only a boy running wild in the Fort Weyr lower caverns, a patrol wing over the Ruath highlands noticed something strange. It looked somewhat like a cracked eggshell fashioned of steel and white glass, and it had obviously landed from the sky, knocking down well over a hundred sky-broom trees in the process."

"You're exaggerating the tale," Father countered. "I remember hearing about the sky-rock that fell that year, and it wasn't nearly that large - hardly larger than your head or mine."

"No, I'm sorry, Master Baker, but it is you who heard a corrupted version of the tale," D'Peerce insisted. "One that the Dragon-riders and certain other individuals of rank agreed should be circulated, to avoid alarming those who didn't need to know the truth. I tell you it was not rock, but metal - and hollow. Even despite the damage of the landing, it was quite clear that the egg was some manner of flying wagon or boat - with seats for a captain and a passenger, and a sort of cargo hold."

"And what does this have to do with my troubles?" I asked the rider quite boldly. "Are you trying to say that Hawthiss was the one who flew around in this air-cart?"

"No, not that one," D'Peerce continued. "But the one who saved your life from his knife - that one might have been. Think about it - such flying ships are known nowhere on Pern, as far as any of us can tell. But we riders also know well that Pern is not alone in our universe. There is the thread, which comes to us across the black night from the Red star, and the small rocks that do fall out of the sky upon occasion. Why not another far star, and some sort of people crossing to Pern in a metal egg?"

"Master Woodblack used to say that he wondered if the first Crossing mentioned in the old records was a journey to Pern from some other place that we've forgotten," I chimed in.

"Yes, a bit like that," D'Peerce said severely. "But these strangers probably didn't come from the same place as our ancestors, and they are not like us."

"How can you be so sure, and does your certainty extend to crediting these 'strangers' of yours with healing powers?"

"I'm not going to go into many details," D'Peerce said stiffly. "But since the egg was discovered, dragon-riders, especially those of Fort Weyr, have kept a watch out for strange tales that might lead us to find the truth of the visitors. There are stories of strangers who can heal with a touch, or kill just as easily, have popped up here and there over the years."

"Just old campfire stories, I expect," my mother put in, with what seemed to me to not be 'proper respect.'

"And just what gives you the right to spy on good Holders gossiping, and hunt down these strangers who might or might not be here?"

"This is another aspect of our _duty_!" D'Peerce roared, losing our temper. "It is not merely a matter of defending Pern against the Thread, when that is falling. For centuries riders have done what we could to aid and protect those in danger from rocks falling from the sky - not that we often have enough warning to do much in advance. Have we not been told the same thing in a hundred different songs and stories? What falls down from the sky is deadly to people and good living things on Pern - and it is the duty and responsibility of the dragon-riders to battle against it."

There was a long, silent moment, and then my father rose and stood as tall as he could, right over D'Peerce. "Thank you for apprising us of your vision of duty, Wing-leader," he said in a very cold voice. "We'll consider what you have told us very carefully, never fear about that."

D'Peerce stood too, and he had nearly a hand in height above Father. "Don't think that you can get rid of me so quickly, Master Baker," he said lowly. "You may think that my brains are thread-addled, but you will not be able to dismiss all who believe in the thread-men as mad fools."

"I don't think that you're crazy, bronze rider," Father told him in a somewhat soothing, conciliatory way. "Just - overexcited and so focused on your goal that you can't see the full vista. Take a little time to reconsider, and we'll speak about this later - maybe in a seven-day."

"No, there is more that I must know now!" the rider exclaimed. "When the thread-men kill or cure, there is a silver handprint left on the one that they affected. Lizza - if you are so marked, I imagine you will have already seen it!"

"That is well and enough, Wing-leader!" my mother chimed in. "Without my daughter's expressed permission, you will _not_ be examining her body for silver handprints."

D'Peerce was about to argue further, but then something about what my mother said deflated him - possibly the little dig about me giving him permission. It's true that a lot of girls are eager to, well, to meet up with dragon riders, especially bronze riders and some brown riders, and spend time with them alone. I even know a few ladies not much more than twenty turns old who are raising rider's children here in Ruath hold - not in the bounds of a traditional espousal, but as long as the rider fathers acknowledge their children and vow to support the mother should any need arise, it seems to be an exception to the usual stigmas about having illegitimate children. As D'Peerce strode away, I wondered if he did have any Holder ladies that he liked to keep company with or maybe a girl back home in the Weyr.

The green and blue riders tend to be mostly interested in each other, of course, even though nearly all green riders are men, so a lot of time they're exclusive with that orientation and don't pay any attention to girls at all.

But anyway, after D'Peerce left, my mind was spinning, and I wondered if Mother and Father would ask me questions about the silver handprint, and what else had happened in the lounge, but they seemed to think that it would be best if we all pretended that the entire thing hadn't happened, which was fine with me. At least, I could pretend that it hadn't happened with them.

I did need to find some friend that I could talk this out with, though; especially since I was no longer even sure if should be protecting Maxx anymore. I left the family apartments and started climbing down toward the lower levels. Was Maxx really the 'thread-man' that D'Peerce and the other riders were looking for? Could there even be a thread-man walking around among other people without being discovered? Thread was neither patient nor capable of hiding, I knew that much from my lessons - well, except possibly for hiding deep underground in a burrow, but even as thread burrowed, it was eating. (I'd even seen Maxx eat, that morning before the knife incident, and he'd shown no sign of a thread-like appetite.)

On the other hand, it was possible that D'Peerce was being metaphorical when he described the stranger that he was looking for as a 'thread-man,' or at least less direct than speaking of a man made out of the same stuff as thread. Thread came from the red star, which the Harper had taught me was possibly a world of itself, very different from Pern, but around the same size, impossibly distant in the sky. Was it possible that there were many different kinds of life on the red star, one of which was thread, and another was people like D'Peerce had described, people like Maxx?

And - had Maxx used his powers before - to save people's lives like he had mine, or to hurt or kill people? It seemed so hard to picture Maxx having a secret life at all, because he'd always been around Ruatha, growing up as I had grown. But I couldn't really deny the idea that something completely secret had happened in the Klah lounge this morning.

I saw Aless and Mari sitting together at one of the tables near the edge of the dining hall. Actually, it looked like two of Aless' Harper apprentice friends were with them, probably joking with Mari and trying to be clever or charming, but she made an overdramatic 'go away' gesture and they shared a look, said goodbye to Aless, and left. Smiling to myself, I walked up to the table and muttered, "I'm glad it's just the two of you here."

Mari made a sort of a gasping sound. "Honey, you look - well, I'm not sure how else to categorize it, except 'not good.' Have you eaten anything all day?"

I tried to remember. "Yeah, Mother brought bubbly pies home at lunchtime, and made me a cheese sandwich."

"Well, that was hours ago," Aless pointed out reasonably. "Dinner just wrapped up, down here, but I'm sure that we can find something that the ravening horde didn't eat all up..."

"I, I can't even think about eating right now," I told him. "Need - need to talk to both of you, alone."

Something about that got both of their attention - possibly because I rarely let my grammar slip so badly. "Alright, where?" Aless asked.

"The fire-heights?" Mari suggested.

That was usually a good place for us to meet privately, except that... "Are we sure that it's clear?" I asked. "I - I know that there was a bronze dragon visiting the Hold." Usually when riders visit a hold, the dragons find it fun to sit up on the fire-heights to wait for their rider to finish his (or her) business.

"The Wing-leader?" Aless asked, and I nodded.

"He's gone," Mari put in. "We saw him come into the hall to convey his duty to Lord Jerood, and Jerood asked him to stay and have dinner in the place of honour, but he insisted on taking off immediately. He really looked upset about something."

"I don't like to think about a rider being upset at anything to do with Ruath hold," Aless muttered grumpily.

"Well, I can tell you something about it, I think," I said. "And if the rider's gone, then let's get climbing."

It's quite a climb up to the fire-heights at most major holds on Pern. Aside from giving the dragons a place to hang out while their riders come visiting, their main function is supposedly to be part of a last-ditch defense of the hold against thread, in case something really goes badly wrong and a clump or tangle of the horrible stuff manages to land near a doorway or window and tries to slowly eat its way in. You'd have someone going out on the heights, (in the middle of the fall - I don't care how many dragons are protecting me I can't ever imagine doing that,) and dropping flaming black-water down onto the thread to burn it away. The heights also generally get used (more frequently) as a convenient lookout point for anybody approaching the area.

So, after all forty-two flights of stairs, the three of us came out onto the top of the heights and checked for dragons or anybody else up there - the coast was definitely clear, so I started to tell them the real story about what I remembered from the knife fight that morning, and D'Peerce's visit this afternoon.

"Wow," Aless muttered when I ran out of things to ramble about for the first time. "So - are you going to talk to Maxx about D'Peerce's visit?"

I turned to stare at him. "I... I guess I might. I haven't really come to any decisions about what to do about any of this. Guess that's what I'm hoping to figure out from talking to you guys, but - I admit I'm surprised that that possibility was the first thing to occur to you. Why would I go to - to someone like that, and warn him that the riders are looking for strangers like him?"

"Come on, Lizza," Mari put in. "Don't tell me that you're falling for the bronze rider's propaganda so easily. No matter what he might tell you about 'thread men', you know Maxx. We all do, sort of - I've never spent much time with him myself, but we kind of grew up together. Even if he is some kind of 'stranger', I'd want at the least to get his side of the story and weigh it before giving him up to dragon riders who think that he's made of thread or something."

I smiled a little wanly and turned out to step towards the edge of the heights, looking out at all the beauty of Ruath valley, and the river ford out in the distance. One of those other little random things that the Harper had told me came to mind, that supposedly in old words 'Rua' meant Red and 'atha' meant ford - the red ford, or ford of the red river, that was what the name Ruatha originally meant. I asked him why those words didn't mean anything except a name anymore and he couldn't really explain that part and got kind of defensive.

"Okay, that makes sense, even given the Mari distrust of all things dragon-rider," I called back, and heard Mari making a rude noise in reply. It was true enough. Mari has a kind of bold cynicism about most authorities, though she's cautious about not making it obvious in front of the Lord Holder, for instance, or craft masters. Somehow I find it hard to believe that she'd be able to feign much respect for a dragon-rider if she ever had to speak to one, though - all the stories that she's heard all her life about her absent father, how he's never acknowledged them or supported her family ever since he impressed have completely colored her outlook. Even Amada, (Mari's mother, in case you forgot,) doesn't seem to have let her bitterness about her departed man colour her attitudes about other riders - but then, I guess Amada learned respect when she was young long before she became a mother herself, while Mari grew up knowing that her father wasn't around because he thought being a rider was more important than other responsibilities.

"May I put in a few more questions?" Aless asked, and I turned back in time to see Mari nod. "Mari, you didn't tell anybody that Maxx was the one who rushed over to Lizza after she fell, did you?"

"Umm, no, I didn't think that it was important, and - well, I guess I thought it might be something silly and embarrassing, like he took an opportunity to - to take a peek or a feel while Lizza couldn't stop him. I didn't want anybody else to know about that kind of thing."

"Hey, then why didn't you try to defend my honor?" I shot back, laughing.

"Would you really have wanted me to, to interrupt him in the middle of saving your life?" Mari countered. "Anyway, I was shouting for a Healer, a more conventional one. Yes, I know that Maxx has been studying with Master Whitman, but I didn't really think that he would keep his head clear enough to do anything useful with conventional medicine." She sighed. "And though I wasn't in the room for a lot of the time, I don't think that anybody else would have noticed that Maxx went to you, but that's not much of a defense. Somebody like D'Peerce might try to interview everyone else who was in the lounge this morning."

"Well, there's not much that we can do about that - except possibly to warn Maxx that he's coming." I sighed. "If he's different - like, not human, not Pernese like us, what if there are others - his parents, his sister?"

"We're not Pernese either, like we've always been here," Aless shot back. "Humans crossed over to Pern, just a while ago. Maybe the dragons have been here for longer."

"No, humans bred the dragons to help them fight thread," Mari countered. "From fire lizards, so maybe they're the true Pernese."

"Oh, yeah," I said. That was one bit that the Harper hadn't told us, just one of those bits of folklore that drifted from person to person. "Compared to that one, thread-people sound perfectly reasonable."

"Well - now that I think about it, let us go and find Maxx for you," Aless suggested. "Bring him up here with us. Just in case D'Peerce has anybody in the hold that'd be quite happy to report back to about whom you're talking to. A layer of indirection doesn't hurt, at least."

I thought about that - about the possibility of talking to Maxx about all of this, and somewhat to my surprise, I was alright with that. "Yeah. In fact, send him up, don't come with. I think I want a bit of privacy, and I'm not scared of him."

"Are you sure?" Mari insisted, taken aback.

"Pretty sure - but just in case, if I die mysteriously - then go to D'Peerce and tell him everything you know about Maxx."

Aless laughed. "Good enough. For what it's worth, I do hope you get things sorted out. And remember to ask about if 'strangers' and humans can have kids together."

I quickly scooped up a loose rock that had been sitting on the heights and chucked it in Aless' direction as he scrambled for the stairs, but didn't really aim it at him, just a warning shot.

Of course, now that we'd settled on this plan of action, I had to stay up on the heights until Mari and Aless found Maxx and he arrived to meet me, and as the sun set in the west a chill wind started to blow across the valley. I hadn't brought any particularly warm clothes with me, and the cold started to settle into my heart and my soul. What would the conversation with Maxx bring into my life now?

It seemed like a long time until there were finally sounds of movement from the stairs, and when I checked, there was Maxx, climbing up the last flight that led out onto the heights themselves. He certainly didn't look like a 'Thread-man' or some other kind of exotic stranger - just a young man around my age, quite handsome actually, with dark brown hair cut short, and his healer green tunic hanging neatly on his lean body. He did have slightly funny-looking ears, sticking out from the side of his head, but somehow I decided that they gave his face character or something like that.

"Good evening, Lizza," Maxx panted softly as he climbed the last few stairs. "Based on the welcome I got from your friends, I guess that you're not too happy about what happened this morning."

I blinked. "Umm, I wouldn't say that I'm unhappy, but I'm not satisfied to leave things where they are - and you shouldn't be either, because I have information that might be important to you, too."

"What kind of information?" Maxx asked calmly.

"I had a dragon-rider visit me this morning. He seemed to be incredibly interested in finding out whether or not I'd actually been stabbed in that short fracas, and then healed - and if I had a silver handprint on my body anywhere - which I do, the last time I checked. He was full of stories about a dangerous Thread-man, who fell from the skies one night."

Maxx's calm had shattered when I said those two horrible words, and I could see panic starting to form in his face. "He said... he said that? Thread-man?" he asked his voice slightly hoarse. I nodded in silent reply. After trying several times, Maxx could only come up with one reply, "Shards of the first egg!"

"So you really are a - well, not a thread-man, that's stupid," I replied. "But some kind of a - well, a stranger to Pern, before..."

"No, Lizza!" Maxx exclaimed, turning to me. "I - I didn't realize how important it was, that you shouldn't know anything about us. It could put you in danger too."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Maxx," I insisted. "If my friends and I know the truth, we can help to protect you - and the others, whoever they are."

"What do you mean... oh, fall's sake!" Maxx shook his head angrily.

"Didn't realize just how much you were giving away with your choice of words, huh?" I asked him.

"No." Suddenly looking hard into my face, Maxx seemed to come to a decision. "Forgive me, Lizza." And he seized me by the shoulders, as if he were about to try and shake some sense into me, which I wouldn't have stood for if I could. (It's so undignified.) But he didn't actually shake, at least as far as I could tell, and something else happened to distract me.

It was like a rush of thoughts overwhelmed me - mostly still pictures, none of them lasting long, one after another, more than I could process and absorb in the two or three seconds than I could take. But some of the answers that I had been looking for were in there. "Thanks. Your - your sister?" I said. "And - and some boy, I've seen him around, but he can't live in the Hold. Is he from one of the herder cots further down the valley?"

Now Max's face fell open for a second again. "What - how do you know about him?"

"Well, you kind of - showed me," I said. "When you touched me. Didn't you intend to use - use your gift on me?"

"Well, I did, but..." Maxx trailed off at that point, and I tried my best 'Come on, fess up' stare at him. Finally he continued. "Well, I was trying to blur your memories of this morning, of D'Peerce's visit, and everything - so that you wouldn't keep pressing me to find out the truth."

I had to laugh. "Well, it looks as if that trick won't work on me - every time you try it you'll give away more secrets." I wasn't sure about that, so it seemed worth using the bluff to keep Maxx from trying it on me again. "What now, are you going to come clean with me at this point?"

"I... I still can't, Lizza," Maxx groaned, this time sounding like he was truly regretful about it. "The dragon-riders know where to find you, and if they suspect that they're keeping a secret - what's to stop them from asking their dragons to read your mind?"

The thought shocked me. "They - they can't actually do that to non-riders, can they?"

Maxx just stared at me for a moment, then turned around and headed back down the stairs from the heights.

So, that's about all for today. I left Maxx some time to climb down and then I went back to my family quarters - I didn't really feel like talking with him again. Not sure what else to do now - I feel like I want to know more about the dragons, about their mental powers and if they really extend further than their own riders and each other, but I have no idea who I could ask, especially without arousing any suspicion.

At least tomorrow's a rest-day, and the Klah lounge is going to be closed, (though Father does have it open some rest-days, so that other people can enjoy his hospitality at their leisure.) There's no big gather at Ruatha or Fort or any of the nearby big holds this week, but Mari and Aless and I had planned to borrow runner beasts from the beast-hold and ride down to the little gather at Plateau hold. We should probably go through with that plan, if only to avoid being suspicious again.

I'm not sure when I'll add to this journal, but probably in the next few days. Maybe by then I'll figure out what to do with Maxx and his sister and his friend. I've thought about confronting Izabella, but I really don't want to. She kind of scares me.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, it's the end of rest-day, and it's been a good one all things considered, though - I guess I've been through a scary moment or two along the way. Let's see.

So the three of us met at the main Roswell hold door not long after sunrise - Mari, Aless, and I - and headed down to the nearest beasthold to get our runner beasts. Now, none of the three of us are really 'runner people' - we've lived all our lives at Ruatha, never really gone that far away too often, and - well, I always used to say that hitching a ride on a dragon or even a wagon was more dignified than a wagon. (Not that I've ever had a chance to ride on a dragon, and after meeting D'Peerce, I'm not likely to look forward to the prospect - though I have nothing against his bronze particularly.)

But most of the young people who grow up in and around Ruath hold have been taught how to ride runner beasts as they grow up, especially since runner breeding has been one of our ancient specialties as a region for hundreds of years or more. Sometimes they even let you borrow a beast just by asking for it and coming up with a reason why you want to ride, like today, without having to pay marks, though if it's a busy time then that won't work out. All three of us were carrying marks, of course, since a gather's really no fun if you don't have anything to spend on treats or impulse shopping of other types, and the apprentice at the beasthold asked us each for an eighth mark 'since it's probably going to be one of the last rest days this year where the weather will be good, and no gather here at Ruatha, and several within riding distance...' and so on. Mari wanted to bargain him down a little, but Aless and I just paid up, so Mari did too, mumbling that we weren't giving her any negotiating leverage. An eighth mark really isn't enough to get so worked up about, I think.

I wanted to ride around the beastholds twice to make sure that I felt comfortable on my ride before heading up the trail, and by the time that was done, there were several other riders ahead of us who hadn't felt the need to linger so long. Not very far away, I spotted Maxx's sister Izabella, and a young man riding next to her who I thought could be Maxx at first, but then when he pointed his head straight away from me I realized that his ears didn't stick out enough, and the hair color was wrong anyway. I looked over at my friends, but they didn't seem to be paying any attention to the other riders, just riding along pacing me, and chatting about what they wanted to do once we got to the Plateau.

So I did my best to ignore Izabella and her stranger friend, (possibly a Stranger in more than one sense of the word,) and soon enough I got caught up in the discussion, to the point that I wasn't paying much attention to where my runner was going. Luckily he was slightly more on the job than I was, but it was a big jolt when the runner suddenly balked at trusting one of his front hoofs to a crack across the path, and I had to back him up a bit and encourage him to walk across the other side of the trail where the crack was narrower, and carefully guide his gait so that he didn't have to step close to it.

After that, I was glad enough to see the plateau visible in the distance, and it didn't take us too long to get to the Gather grounds there. There was a journeyman herdcrafter managing the runnerbeast pens for visiting riders, and he charged us each another eighth mark for boarding the runners and feeding them. That one I hadn't expected, but at least my little pouch of marks wasn't too depleted yet. Aless wanted to go to the baker's stall first, but Mari was already urging me along to the Weavers displays, and Aless just really had no way to deflect her.

When we got there, Izabella was ahead of us again. She had taken off her fine wherhide riding jacket, and was standing in pants and a halter while the weaver's apprentices hurried about and took her measurements. She caught my eyes as she stood with her arms spread out and seemed to flinch, as if she were afraid of me. "Oh, hello, Lizza - Mari. So, umm, so sorry if I'm monopolizing most of the Master Weaver's staff...

"Oh, no - no problem," Mari said, though she seemed a bit surprised that Izabella was talking to us like this - it isn't for nothing that she's been nicknamed after the Cold Lake. Of course, Mari didn't yet know what had happened between Maxx and I when he came up to the heights, and probably hadn't thought about what Maxx would have told his sister about us. "I understand how important it can be to get a proper fitting."

"Hi, Izabella," Aless said, letting his eyes wander a bit too slowly across her well-proportioned figure. Aless has always been somewhat lovestruck when it came to the beautiful Izabella, like many other young men all around the Ruatha area and beyond, and she's seldom paid him much attention either.

"Can I help either of you young ladies?" a journeyman asked Mari and I, stepping up to the counter of the stall. He was tall, with long hair the color of good butter, and maybe nineteen turns old or so, but it was probably bad for me to get my heart in my own eyes with everything else that was going on right now.

"I don't have that many marks to spend," Mari told him regretfully, her full lips almost making a kissing face, "but that cross-stitched shawl is so beautiful. Could I just have a closer look? How much is it?"

"Here, try it on," the journeyman offered, smiling brilliantly back at her. "Three marks."

"Ouch," I muttered to myself. I had that much in my belt pouch, even after the runner-related expenses, but doubted that Mari had been able to save quite so many marks. Mari shot me a look, not a really mean one but kind of to say 'just don't say anything,' so of course I didn't protest as she took the shawl and wrapped it around her shoulders. I started to browse through the rack of light blouses just for something to do - most of them were too expensive for me and fairly impractical given my lifestyle and Ruathan weather. But very pretty.

"You almost done over here?" someone called, and I turned and saw the young man who had been riding with Izabella, a sour look on his face as he tromped down the line of gather stalls towards the Weaver's.

Izabella rolled her eyes. "No, I told you that it'd take nearly an hour to get measured properly and pick the details of my pattern. The mystery man looked at her with a sort of a 'yes, and so?' expression. "It's been hardly a quarter of that," Izabella continued.

"Would, umm, would you mind introducing us to your gentleman friend?" Aless asked her after clearing her throat.

"Oh, he's no gentleman," Izabella shot back, laughing softly. "But alright. Guys - this is Mechall, an old friend of my brother's. Mechall, I'd like you to meet a few of the young people who live up at Ruatha - Lizza, the Master baker's daughter, Mari, and - umm..." She had enough poise to look embarrassed at not remembering Aless' name, which was more than I'd sometimes seen her manage.

"Harper apprentice Aless," he said, putting a slight stress on his humble rank, and offering a hand to Mechall. "Nice to meet you, Mechall - though I think I've seen you around the valley. Are you an apprentice Herder?"

"Oh, not formally," Mechall muttered awkwardly. "Take care of the animals along with the apprentices and the other herder's dependents, but I'm not sponsored to the craft. Not sure I'd wish to be, either." He shrugged laconically."

"No?" Aless said, and flicked his eyes meaningfully to Izabella for an instant. The significance was not lost on anybody standing there - being apprenticed to a craft, even the beastcraft, which wasn't the most respectable of occupations, was something that a young man with no great rank or privilege in his family could do to impress the parents of a prospective spouse with his ability to provide for their daughter. If Mechall professed to not care about an apprenticeship with the beastcraft, did that mean that he wasn't interested in any girls that way - or that he didn't think even an apprenticeship would be enough to win over her parents? Mechall just shrugged again, which didn't really give Aless any information from the pool that he'd been fishing in - if Mechall was enamoured of the lovely Izabella, if he just possibly had the inside track on her affections to start with.

"I have an idea," Mari put in, her eyes gleaming slightly. "Since all three of us laides will be busy here for a while, why don't you crawl the gather square with Mechall and find some way to keep yourselves amused and out of trouble, huh Aless? We can meet up next to the roasting pit in - umm..." She paused for a second to look up and judge the sun's position in the sky. "In an hour and a half?"

"Um - okay, alright by me," Aless said, looking over at Mechall, who seemed suddenly wary but nodded. In just a moment the pair of them had disappeared down the wide concourse aisle, and Mari turned to smile at Izabella.

Now, Aless and I can both recognize Mari's version of subtlety, so it wasn't hard to see that she had recognized the possibilities of Izabella's and Mechall's connections to Maxx, and contrived to split the two of them up and get close as naturally as possible. What I wasn't so sure of was if Izabella and Mechall understood the point too. Mechall had distinctly been wary, and Izabella seemed to be retreating slightly behind an icy shield as I watched her.

But at least Izabella has mastered the trick of being pleasant and sociable while she hides her true self behind her shield. (I suppose that she's had many, many Turns to practice it.) It didn't take too much longer for Izabella to finish getting measured, and we found out that she was commissioning a long dress, a 'half-dressy' one that could do just as well for Gather dances and dinner at Lord Jerood's table, or even 'just walking around the Hold.' My first immediate thought was that it wouldn't be much good for serious work in, but maybe Izabella doesn't need to worry about that too much. I've never seen her doing anything that seemed very tough, myself.

But Izabella stayed around the Weaver's stall after they had all of the details and figures needed to begin her commission, and offered Mari helpful suggestions about shawls, and pointed several beautiful blouses out to me that I just 'had' to buy before they were gone. When I immediately blurted out that I needed something a bit warmer and sturdier, more than delicate blouses, she immediately asked one of the Apprentice Weavers for some heavier woolen pullover shirts. "Something in a pretty dye pattern, for Miss Lizza," she added as the Apprentice scurried away. "There's no reason that she can't be warm and attractive at the same time."

So soon a pile of pullovers had been arranged on the table, high enough to nearly reach my shoulder, and I reached out in wonder to feel one of the sleeves - such soft fabric, and so finely knit that it must have taken somebody weeks and weeks, at least, to fashion it. Izabella went through them methodically, considering each pattern for only a few seconds before carefully setting it aside, until finally something met with her approval. "What do you think?" she said, unfolding the knitted shirt and holding it in front of her, though it wasn't hard to see that the piece in question wouldn't fit somebody of her height and endowments.

"It - it's gorgeous," I had to admit. The front of the pullover depicted a brown dragon crouching in a field of green grass and gray stones, and a tiny finger climbing up the dragon's foreleg to mount - or possibly dismounting, climbing down, I couldn't be entirely sure. "But - but I'm not sure if that's for me. It's got to be pricey enough to wipe out my marks, and..."

And considering the way that what Maxx said about dragons finding out his secret was haunting me, I had absolutely no stomach for wearing a dragon on the front of my shirt. But I couldn't say that out loud, of course - and I was also very surprised that Izabella should suggest one. Wouldn't she have issues with dragons too, for the same reasons that her brother did.

By the time the sun was nearing noon, the three of us girls had left the Weavers' - I with a less fancy pullover in a thicker knit, pink with diagonal 'stripes' of dark gray running through it, which Mari said was very flattering to my skin tone, and Mari bought a bright blue kerchief with a pattern of green vines around the edges. Izabella had the instructions to return at dinner-time for a fitting of her new dress.

"So, where to now?" I asked, a little faintly. There was no sign of Aless and Mechall.

"We could go down to the food stalls for a nooning," Mari suggested. "Meatrolls and fresh fruit, or something light like that."

"Fine by me," Izabella said, as if we hadn't a care in the world. Mari hurried ahead towards the dining section of the gather square, and I took advantage of the moment to be alone with Izabella - well, we weren't entirely alone, surrounded by other shoppers and gatherers, but none of them were paying attentiong to her.

"So, would you ever want to wear a dragon on your chest, like with that pullover you suggested for me?" I asked, wondering if I could prompt a reaction of fear or wariness before Izabella covered it with a pleasant expression.

I was surprised with what reaction I did manage to elicit, though. "I'd be that close to a real dragon, if only I could," she muttered wistfully. "But there's precious little chance of that, isn't there?"

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

Izabella shook herself slightly. "What's so hard to understand?" she asked a little bit crossly. "I'd dearly love to be a dragon-rider, but think of the numbers. How many women are there on Pern? Between the large holds, the smaller ones, the crafthalls and the Weyrs, perhaps four hundred thousands. How many get to be dragon riders? Well, there are six Weyrs, and two or three Gold dragon queens in each, one female rider for each gold dragon. A few green dragons are still impressed by women and not men, but those are rarer than the queen riders overall. That comes out to perhaps two dozen women riders. Boys have much better chances to become dragon riders, by a factor nearly two hundred."

I stared at her, openly disbelieving this, of all possible reactions. "You really _want_ to be a dragon-rider?"

"Well, why not, who wouldn't, really?" Izabella said, staring back at me. "But what's the use of wanting, or wishing it? Won't ever make it so, considering."

She shrugged, and turned away. I shrugged too, and we headed off for our nooning.

They had something called a 'meatroll sub-mariner' at the vendor's stall - a narrow split roll of bread, with several flattened meatrolls in the middle, and greens and a savory sauce. I've had sand witches before, which are sort of the same idea, but never one quite like that, and it was really good. Izabella treated Mari and I to the sub-mariners, and I offered to pay for the fruit ices afterward - so did Mari, actually, but I was faster. And we met up with Aless and Mechall at the iceman's stall.

"So, what do you have to show for your morning's gathering?" Mari asked Aless, showing off her kerchief.

"Nothing that I can take with me, I'm afraid," Aless admitted. "I looked a bit at the instruments on display, but I'm not in the market for a new gitar or a harp. It's supposed to go the other way, but Selig won't stamp my pipes for sale yet."

"Weren't you ladies supposed to go to the roasting pits?" Mechall asked us a bit testily. "We split a wherry drumstick and thigh, and waited for you until all the nooning meat was gone, and then I just happened to spot you, Izabella, promenading over to the Iceman's like you were Lady Holder of all you could see."

"Oh," Izabella said, and brushed a hand across her forehead in an apologetic way. "Sorry, I managed to completely forget that was the meeting place I said. We had these submariners."

"Ehh, that's okay I guess, we're all here now," Mechall said. "Should we all walk the Gather Square together?"

"Hmm." I considered that as I sucked a bit of the mixture of crushed ice and mashed fruit out of a makeshift cup that had been fashioned from half of a hardened fruit rind. "Five of us is a bit too many to all promenade together comfortably, but we can make a start of it, and I'll keep an eye out for a friend of my father's - Journeywoman Baker Paysle. She's short by a couple of apprentices today, so I''ve been recommended to pick up the slack and help her out - he said that I could earn a mark and a half if I'm diligent and impress her."

"Ooh, big marks!" Mari exclaimed. "Is that recommendation good for two?"

"Or, dare I say it, three?" Mechall wondered aloud.

I looked around at them all, considering - and taking note of the fact that Izabella and Aless would be left alone if all three of us went to work for Paysle. Aless was smiling slightly, as if he'd figured out that much himself. "Well, I can certainly ask her," I said. "It'll probably take three of us more or less amateurs to handle the workload of two trained apprentices."

And that was the way things worked out, as it happened. Journeywoman Paysle was already overwhelmed by the nooning dessert crowd by the time we got there, and jumped at the offered help - though she didn't guarantee any more than 'one mark for the Masterbaker's daughter and half a mark each for your friends. You can earn more with care and diligent service, but that's at my discretion. Also, if you drop, ruin, or eat any of my wares, they'll either come out of your hire or your hide. Do I make myself sufficiently plain?'

I remember looking around at Mari and Mechall, who seemed happy enough to take on the Journeywoman's conditions, and then at Izabella, who seemed a bit uncertain how she felt at potentially being left alone with Aless, and finally I shot one meaningful look at Aless, who seemed entirely too happy at the prospect.

The three of us ended up working there for most of the afternoon and into the early evening, more or less - things got a bit slower in the later afternoon, when everybody was looking forward to a big supper, so Paysle let one of us go off on a break at a time, Mechall, Mari, myself, then Mechall and Mari again, and then we were into the supper rush.

#

I didn't take my leave of Journeywoman Paysle's stall until the singing and dancing was well started. In fact, I didn't really want to take off then, because I was so keen on impressing her with my 'care and diligence.' Mari and Mechall both left once the dessert crowds had trickled off - Mari with a full mark and a quarter, and Mechall with a mark and an eighth.

Paysle finally turned to me in a slow moment and said, "Lizza, let me be plain. You've spent half the rest-day helping me out, and I'm impressed, but you should run off now too. You didn't have much for your supper, aside from that large cream bun that you slipped a more-than-fair price into the till box for, and you should have a chance to dance with the boys or listen to the music, a pretty young thing like you. So here's your mark and a half, you're not getting more, and if you keep hanging around here, I may dock you some of your spare change."

I had to laugh at the way she put it. "Do you think they'll have anything decent left at the roasting pits?"

"Yes - look for the tall old uncle with the straggly white hair bound up on top of his head. He always keeps some good portions by - for the holder folk that are kept with the difficult jobs - put if you tell him I sent you, he'll probably take pity on you."

"Alright, thanks." I pocketed the mark pieces that Paysle had given me, (two half-marks and two quarters from assorted crafts, which was good because it's always a little hard to break a full mark,) slipped off the apron that I'd been wearing, and scrambled out of the stall and into the walkway. Just in time, I remembered to wave gratefully back to Paysle before I left her sight entirely.

So I was able to spend a small fraction of a mark on a plate with some roast meat, and tubers and veggies, that had been kept warm next to one of the cooking fires, and as I munched and looked around that quadrant of the Gather square, I realized that the musical number wasn't really a dance number, though there were a few couples that were swaying close on the open floor, arms tight around each other. There was a girl around my own age up on the slightly crooked wooden stage, a pretty stick of a thing with wavy golden hair, and singing out one of those quavery ballads in a surprisingly rich and powerful contralto.

"She's quite something, isn't she?" somebody said from behind my shoulder. "We were so lucky to get a tour group up from the Harper Hall for our little Gather."

I turned around and saw a tall woman, not quite at what I'd usually think of as grandmotherly age, smiling over at the stage as I must have been a moment ago. I took a moment to try and identify the woman, and then panicked and erred on the side of caution. "My lady," As I was in the middle of a bow, I realized how badly I must have overstated her rank.

But the woman chuckled and reached out to ruffle my hair, which I endured with as big a smile as I could manage. "I'm no lady, just a simple Holder's wife," she muttered offhandedly. "Up from Ruatha for t'Gather?"

"Well, yes." I agreed. "It's been a fine day - I enjoyed myself, and profited some too. Thank you very much for your hospitality." There was a moment's pause. "So how many of the performers came from the Harper Hall at Fort Hold?"

"Let's see," the Holder woman said. "The singer, the lead gitarist next to her, the piper, and the one actually playing a harp. The second gitarist is our own Journeyman Miconnay. We offered to pay the Hold when we asked for a few performers for our Gather, since just one man leading a group sing isn't anything too special around here. But the MasterHarper wouldn't take a mark from us - just said that we were giving him an opportunity to do his duty." She shrugged.

"You know, I think I recognize that older man on the harp," I admitted, wondering if the news I was about to drop would impress or distress my hostess. "My father introduced me to several people from the Hall when we visited Fort two years ago. If I'm not much mistaken, you've got the Instrumental Master playing for your evening guests."

The holder's mouth had dropped open. "Really? He... he didn't introduce himself by rank - and apologized that his shoulder knots had gotten torn off during the ride."

"Probably he wanted to be somewhat anonymous," I suggested.

"Then I won't make a fuss. So, just what did you profit from at my Gather, anyway? Bring many precious wares to sell?"

I laughed and told the woman, Holder Eeyara, about how I'd worked at the Baker's stall half the day, and then took my leave of her, because the singer had taken a break and some of the other performers were striking up a lively dance tune. I was walking along the edge of the dance square, not sure if I should go dance by myself, actually go up to a cute local boy and ask him to dance, or just keep strolling around and hoping that someone agreeable would notice me and do the asking himself. Then suddenly someone grabbed my wrist from behind and pulled me off into a shadowed alley between two large stalls. I nearly screamed, and the man pulled me roughly around by my shoulder and hissed an unspoken call for silence.

It was Mechall, and he looked very angry, as far as I could tell in the dim light, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a way that was almost ugly.

"What the hell are you doing with Izabella?" he demanded in a harsh whisper. "Have you fallen in love with Maxx, is that it? And he won't have anything to do with you, so you try to worm your way into his sister's good graces?"

"I... I'm only trying to be friendly with Izabella, and with you," I replied. "She invited us to spend the Gather with us after we met at the Weaver's stall - well, I guess I might have taken some of the initiative myself, but I wasn't forcing my company on her. Isn't she of age to make her own choices, at least some of the time?" Even though I was trying to act defiant and sensible, I was a little frightened of what Mechall might do if I couldn't convince him of my sincerity.

"Okay, whatever," Mechall grunted, shaking his head after a moment's thought. "Then here's how it's going to be. You and your friends are going to leave Izabella alone. I don't care whose initiative, if she tries to be friends you just tell her that you've got something else to do, or that you don't care to spend your time with her. I don't care from polite or respectful, I just want all three of you staying well away from her. Or else - well, things could get very unpleasant for a few young kids around Ruatha... or their parents."

"Oh come on, really?" I muttered, my attitude still locked on 'defiant' no matter how much my arms were trembling from fear and outrage over the threats. (By this time he wasn't still holding me at least.) "Is this even really about us, or are you just feeling jealous about Aless getting close to Izabella? And I'm not sure I believe in all your threats - you don't want to do anything that might attract attention."

"Nothing that would draw attention to us." Mechall smiled slightly. "There's a few things that we could try that wouldn't be traced back to us - not unless somebody squealed to the Dragon riders, and I don't think that you're that stupid."

At this point I really lost my temper. "You're an idiot, Mechall," I flared at him. "No, I'm probably not going to go inform on you to the Dragon Riders, no matter what kinds of petty torture you may try on me, my family, my friends, or even the family of my friends. But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to let you bully us either. And I would think it should be obvious to anybody in your position that it would be better for me to be a friend, keeping your secret and helping you keep a low profile out of honest affection, than to really get to the point that I'm only doing what you say because I'm afraid of you."

Mechall seemed flabbergasted that I was actually talking to him like this, so I snuck in one more thing. "And while we're on the topic, I think that it actually might help Izabella keep a low profile to let her be friends with us, if she wants a few more friends. Could even draw attention away from her and Maxx - the best way to hide anything is in plain sight." And at that, I turned and swept back into the glow-light around the dancing square. Full of self-confidence and energy from what I'd been through, I reached out to one of the cute boys that I'd noticed standing around - I couldn't quite reach his fingers, but managed to catch his attention. "Dance with me, sweetie."

I hadn't noticed that the music had changed to a slightly slower, sweet number while I'd been arguing with Mechall, but I didn't really mind that.

#

Mari and Aless found me after that one dance, and reminded me that we needed to be heading back to Ruatha already, which isn't the sort of thing that would usually slip my mind. Dancing and song usually goes fairly late at a gather, but the runnerbeast paths from the Plateau back to Ruatha can be treacherous after night falls, and we'd agreed to leave right after sunset, so that we could be within sight of the Hold glows by the time twilight was fading away.

So I said a hurried goodnight to the boy I'd been dancing with, and the three of us hurried over towards the runnerbeast pens. With a smile, a tall man in a cloak and new dark pants stepped out in front of us. "Do the three of you think that you'll be able to get back home to Ruatha all right, this late?"

I blinked, but I remembered my proper courtesies this time. "My duty to you, Holder Ricosh, and thank you very much for your hospitality on rest day. I stayed at the dancing a bit longer than we planned, but I think that we'll be alright."

"Is there anything else that you could suggest, to see to our safety, Holder?" Aless asked. "I wouldn't want to put any of your dependents to the trouble of escorting us home and then riding back through the night, and it would be somewhat awkward for us to stay over here the night, if you even have room for us, I mean, not to presume..."

"Yes, well, I might have a third idea, at that," Ricosh said, nodding slightly and leading us on towards the beast pens. "Mechall, Izabella? Hold your mounts back a few minutes, if you please," he called.

"Oh, no," I muttered. "Mechall isn't going to be happy about this."

"Why not?" Mari asked indignantly. I hadn't had a chance to tell either of them about Mechall confronting me behind the dance square. As Ricosh led us over to the runnerbeasts, I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what happened.

Izabella sounded quite excited about the prospect of having company on the road back to Ruatha, and Mechall only let resentment flash across his face for a single moment that I nearly didn't catch, before acting reasonably gracious and polite about the whole situation. We rode away from the gather square, as Aless adjusted a glowbasket on a pole and stretched it out ahead of himself and his mount.

"Come on, don't you know anything?" Mechall immediately exploded. "We won't be able to see anything else with the glow light right in front of us like that." He'd been riding back a little ways, next to Izabella. "You have to have whoever's bringing up the rear hold the glow basket behind himself."

"But that way the light won't be as string," Mari complained. "And all of the beasts will cast shadows into our path."

"I think that he's right," I decided, squinting at the softly glowing green bundle myself. "It won't be ideal, but that's better than having the direct glow light outshine everything else it's illuminating." To myself, I wondered if you could work out a basket that would shield the glows from behind and expose them to the front only. But of course, for that to work, you'd need to make sure that it wouldn't swing around in the wrong direction.

"Don't try to help," Mechall snapped at me in turn. "I don't need your support, and I meant what I said back there. We'll ride with you because the big man at Plateau asked us to, and because safety in numbers riding at night just makes sense, but..."

"What did you tell her at the gather?" Izabella asked Mechall quietly, interrupting him effortlessly.

Mechall glared from Izabella to me and my friends, and I shrugged at him. "Wh... Why are you acting so friendly towards her, anyway?" he shot back at Izabella. "You know what..."

"What did you say to her, Mechall?" Izabella persisted, but Mechall rode along for a long time in silence, until we were approaching the path down the plateau. "I know that Maxx saved her life, yes, Mechall, and we should all stop pretending that we don't know about that perhaps."

"And so you think that makes them your confidants?" Mechall growled as his horse stepped onto the first gradual slope. "Your new best friends? What do you need them for, anyway? I don't even have parents, but you and Maxx, you've always been enough for me!"

"Let's everybody calm down," Aless suggested. "At least while we're riding the difficult bit of the trail."

"I don't need to calm any which way," Mechall exclaimed. "And I don't need helpful hints from anybody. I'm perfectly in control of this fine stallion."

That much was obviously true. However, now that Mechall had called our attention to the runner beasts, it was evident that one person who was not in perfect control was Izabella. I wasn't sure if it was just the night riding or the things that Mechall had said to her, but her dark little mare seemed to be highly agitated and nosed ahead, staying close to the plateau wall. In a few seconds Darky brushed against the hindquarters of Mari's runner, who squealed and whinnied in dismay.

I had a sense of sudden danger, but wasn't sure what to do, how to intervene in the situation without just making everything worse. I tried to slow my own runner down smoothly, to avoid contributing to the general sense of tension as much as for any clearer reason, and suddenly the dark horse spooked, carrying Izabella with her, forward and to the right, into the space that I had unwittingly opened up in formation.

And the dark mare lost her footing, near the edge of the path where the side of the Plateau sloped away and down for a dragonlength or more, throwing Izabella off near the edge herself.

"Aww, for crying out loud, what a bunch of idiots," Mechall muttered, which I thought was a bit rich considering that he'd really triggered the whole thing much more than Mari, Aless, or I had. (I assumed that we were the idiots that he was referring to.) At the same time, he was slipping out of the saddle, and handed the bridle of his runner to Aless, who took it with the beginnings of a protest, and then shut up. That made a lot of sense to me, actually - as much as Aless might resent the role that Mechall had thrust upon him, it made sense for somebody to be taking care of any horses that didn't have riders, so that they didn't get into more trouble. That even cued me into trying to ride up alongside the dark mare and catch something that I could hold her back with.

That kept me busy for a while, though I noticed that Mari had dismounted as well, but couldn't seem to get her runner to come close enough to Mechalls for Aless to take all three of them. I'd just managed to soothe Izabella's mare a little bit, when there was a loud sort of a popping sound, and Mechall exclaimed in frustration and worry.

"What is it?" Mari called, leaving her runner and hurrying close to him. I couldn't see if Aless had charge of the beast or not.

"Hold... hold my left arm steady and don't let me fall," Mechall grumbled. "I need to reach down further."

The basket of glows had fallen during all of this confusion - in fact, Izabella had been the one carrying it as we started down on the trail, so she'd dropped it as soon as the runner spooked. I rode over to the stick and actually tried to reach down for it, but there was just no way I could reach it while still mounted, and I wasn't at all sure that I'd be able to dismount while still holding Izabella's nervous runner, and without letting go of mine as well. So I waited, trying to see what was going on in the light of the stars, and the one faint moon.

Mari did seem to be bracing Mechall, who had most of his chest hanging off the path. Mechall was muttering loud enough that I could hear snatches now: "three blues and one green were at the Plateau gather. Last thing we need is a dragon spotting us and trying to lend a helpful hand..."

After many long seconds I could see Izabella scrambling up and over Mechall to safety, her riding boots poking into his back without generating any audible complaints. After another moment of rest and recovery, Mari got up and silently went back around the runners to fetch the glow basket.

There weren't many words spoken as we reformed the line and everybody who had been dismounted, one way or another, got back onto their beasts. I imagine that everybody was concentrating more on getting down the plateau safely than rehashing what had happened before. Finally, as the path widened out and we could tell that the plain wasn't too far below, Aless spoke up. "Couldn't you just use your... your strange powers to save her, Mechall?"

There was a tense, nervous silence, and then Mechall scoffed loudly, but didn't say anything in words. "Just... just how much do you think that we can do with our powers, Aless?" Izabella asked. Her voice was soft, staying mostly on a monotone but still with a hint of sadness. "Beyond healing people who've been stabbed with a knife, I mean?"

"I... I'm not sure," Aless admitted.

"The - the bronze Rider who visited Liz said that strangers could... that they could kill with a touch, as well," Mari muttered.

"We haven't." Mechall snapped angrily. "I suppose that I probably could, if I felt the need, but none of the three of us have ever hurt anybody like that."

"No," Izabella agreed. "And there's a bit more to it than healing and harming, but we're certainly not all-powerful. To get back to your specific question, Aless... if it had been Mechall who'd fallen off the plateau, and I was all by myself, I might have been able to... to lift him back up even if I couldn't reach him. That's another aspect of our powers, to move things without touching them." Mechall grumbled more audibly, though I couldn't quite make out the words.

"However," Izabella continued after a moment, "Mechall sometimes has problems with that trick, especially when he's agitated or upset. I guess he didn't dare to try it with me because he was so worried."

"What - what kind of problems?" I asked.

"Well, the things that he tries to move... sometimes get badly shaken and damaged," Izabella put in.

"Then I'm glad we were able to find another way," Aless put in immediately.

"Are we done with sharing time for now?" Mechall asked peevishly. "Remember, there could be somebody else riding this road without a light."

"I'm fine with talking about more normal things," Izabella suggested. "That wouldn't give away secrets." She waited for a long time, but Mechall didn't say anything.

I decided to take his silence as tacit agreement to Izabella's compromise. "So, leaving aside the slim chance of becoming a Queen's rider, Izabella, what else do you want to do with your life?"

She sighed a little forlornly. "I'm not sure. I don't really have the mind and temperament to learn a craft, like Aless or Maxx - or you, Lizza. I'll probably get married to someone fairly respectable and industrious - hopefully he won't be prominent enough to be impossibly fond of himself." After a moment of consideration, Izabella added. "Maybe I'll end up running one of the little farmer's cots, or helping to start a small Hold."

"It'll be a brave husband indeed who'll found a new Hold in the first few years of a thread pass," Mari pointed out. "Not trying to rain on your dreams, just mentioning it."

"Yeah," Izabella agreed sadly.

Myself, I was a little startled at Izabella having lumped me in with the other people she knew who were on a craft track - did she think of me as my father's apprentice in the bakery? I had learned some of the tricks of his trade from him, and could bake some of the pies as well as any apprentice boy my age, but... well, I guess I'd never wanted to commit myself to going into the family business. Come to think of it, Father was somewhat disappointed that I preferred to serve his creations to customers than spend more time with the ovens and the mixing bowls, creating pastries of my own, but... I didn't know. Maybe that was just my little rebellion, and I'd devote myself to the Baker's trade when I realized that I didn't truly have any better prospects for myself.

We chatted some more about things on the ride back to Ruatha - Mari shared the story about her flighty dragonrider father to Izabella, and Aless talked at fairly great length about his studies with the local Harpers, and his father, who Izabella already knew about as Maxx's master. She asked Aless why he hadn't joined in playing at the Gather, and he quipped about how he didn't make a point of joining the instrumental section when he didn't have to, but if Izabella wanted to hear him play the gitar, he'd be performing at the next Ruatha gather in three sevendays.

And that was about it for the day. We parted company with Mechall at the beasthold, where he grumbled fairly calmly about having to help clean, feed, and water the runners before he'd be left to get any sleep, and walked up to the hold with Izabella. "Can I meet any of you for breakfast tomorrow?" she asked shyly as we neared the Hold steps.

"What time?" Aless asked immediately.

"Umm - about an hour after dawn?" she hazarded.

"Oh - I'd love to, but my morning composition class will have started by then," he said regretfully. "And afterwards, I'm to help with the little children."

"Perhaps another time, then," she told him with a warm smile. "Lizza? Mari?"

"We should be able to take a quick break," Mari told her. "Why don't you come by the Klah lounge."

"Great, I look forward to it."

Maxx was sitting in a wooden armchair when we got into the hall, talking with his mother, and Izabella ran over to tell them about her rest-day. I shared one glance with Maxx, and realized that though he didn't want me to come nearer, he was still happy to see me. I'm not sure what to do about that, or the fact that Mechall still obviously resents us, despite Mari's help in rescuing Izabella.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to write tomorrow or not.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, everything has changed now, and I'm starting to wonder if what Maxx said was right, that I should never have pressed him for answers. But even that probably wouldn't have kept me out of this mess.

I should back up and explain.

It started this morning, with me doing drudge duty at the Klah lounge again. It's been six days since I went to Plateau Hold with Mechall and Izabella, and I was just looking forward to the end of the sevenday and getting a chance to relax on rest day again, particularly since I worked at least half the day away at the Plateau Hold gather. Father let me have the afternoon off a few days back, but it's still not quite the same thing.

I'd just finished washing a pile of used dishes with sweetsand back in the kitchen, and sauntered towards the dining chamber to see if anybody new had arrived whose order I should take, when I caught a glimpse of him - Maxx, sitting alone this time. Unable to resist, I ducked away from sight, sidling up the edge of the access passage until he was looking the other way, and then darting out until I was standing next to his table, between him and the exit. "Hi, and welcome to the Klah lounge. May I help you?"

Maxx looked up at me and sighed, shaking his head. "I figured that you weren't working here now, Lizza."

"No, I was just cleaning up in the kitchen. So, come on, what'll you have? We've got fresh redfruit turnovers - or are you going to stand up and leave rather than let me get you something to eat?" I was speaking quietly, as had Maxx, and the other diners weren't very close to Maxx's table, but I rather guessed that they'd notice if Maxx left so quickly, even if neither of us raised our voice. And the one thing Maxx never wanted to do was draw attention to himself.

"Umm, yes, a redfruit turnover would be great," he said, pulling out a thirty-second mark. "In fact, I think that I'm hungry enough for two. And is there any of your mother's citrus-ade mixed up in back?"

"Yes, the tart yellow stuff," I said. "That'll do nicely, sir."

So I went into the back, filling up his beaker of the yellow citrus drink and putting two turnovers on a plate. Just as I put them onto Maxx's table and he flourished the mark piece into my hand, we heard somebody new at the entrance. Turning around, I saw my heart sink at the site of a short, older man in riding leathers standing in the doorway, scanning over the entire dining chamber. Max drew in a quick breath.

And the old rider hurried towards us, an almost comically eager grin spreading over his face. "Hey, kids!" he exclaimed. "Do you wanna see my dragon?" He obviously wasn't expecting anything less than rioutous enthusiasm in our response.

"Umm, not really just at the moment," Maxx tried to mumble.

"I really have to go and..." I started, and got cut off.

"Oh, come on!" The rider stopped, not quite close enough that he could have reached out and touched me. "I - I don't know if you've heard down here in Ruatha, but we've got a clutch of dragon eggs up at Fort Weyr that are going to hatch in about a sevenday. So we're looking for young men and women who could impress the hatchling dragons and become riders, and my girl, Topolth, is just about the best at picking boys and girls who have what it takes to be riders. So quit yer mumblin', come on down and take your chances. Wouldn't you like to have a dragon friend?"

I'd figured out that he was wearing the shoulder knots of a green rider just before he introduced his dragon as 'my girl.' Maxx looked at me and hesitated - neither of us really did want to meet dragons or visit Fort Weyr, much less become permanent residents there. After the green rider's tirade, a woman from the furthest table in the room started pounding on it and called out, "Hear, hear! We need more good men and women to be dragon riders, especially with Thread a-coming. I'd have taken my chances on the Hatching Ground if I were asked, and no mistake about it. Figure I'm much too old to get picked now, aren't I, sir?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the green rider said with a courteous nod to the woman, a middle-ranking Ruatha holder, and then turned his gaze back to us.

Maxx stood up slowly, and when he was on his feet he had nearly a handspan to look down on the rider from. "Thank you for the offer, sir. But I am learning a good craft, studying to become a Healer, and it is a choice between myself, my master, and my parents if I go with the Weyr on search."

"But you could be both!" the rider protested. "We always need good Weyr healers, especially once the Pass starts, to treat Threadfall injuries. And healers who've impressed their own dragons make the best dragon healers..."

Maxx's eyes narrowed, and I jumped into the conversation - the last thing that Maxx needed was to actually lose his temper and start a fist-fight or a wrestle with an old rider. Why, if this character took a bad fall, his dragon might get scared and - but that didn't bear thinking of. "Sir, my duty to you, and welcome to the Klah Lounge. I'm Lizza, the daughter of Master Baker Parker, and I'd be pleased to come down and meet Topolth. Might I ask your name without giving offense?"

The rider smiled at me. "Well, sure, my lady Lizza. Don't expect that you'd have heard about me in your lessons or whatever. P'sky, green Topolth's rider, and my duty to you as well." He bowed his head deeply. "Could I ask the name of your young... customer here?"

I looked over at Maxx to see if he would volunteer his own information, or if he seemed to object to me giving the introduction. He was sullen but not too resentful. "Certainly. P'sky, meet Maxx, the son of our beloved Harper Evan, and apprentice to Master Healer Whitman."

"My duty to you, Apprentice Maxx," P'sky made a much less formal nod to Maxx. "I hope that you reconsider taking a chance with a dragon. Lady Lizza?" He offered me his arm in a courtly gesture, facing towards the door.

"Wait a moment," I exclaimed. "I'm the only one minding the lounge at the moment. I can't just go."

"When a dragonrider tells you to come with him, Lizza, you come!" That shout came from Kylo, the son of the Hold Warder Valentim, and it sounded more like a nasty jibe from him than a helpful cheer. Kylo had been trying for a while to make inroads on my favor, but I hadn't really been that impressed with him even before Maxx caught my eye again, and even my parents weren't impressed with the match, for which I was very grateful.

"Well, when will any of the other staffers be back?" P'sky asked, courteously but a bit peeved at the way one obstacle after another was popping up in his mission.

"I'm back now," my father announced from the kitchen passage - he must have slipped in the back way during this whole nonsense. "What's this about, green rider? My duty to the weyr notwithstanding, I won't stand for Fort riders harassing my daughter, and I've made that plain before."

"I'm P'sky, Master Baker, and my duty to you," P'sky said, with a very deep bow indeed for Father. "I intended no disrespect to your daughter or your customers, but the wings are here on Search today, looking for Candidates to stand on the Hatching Ground. I simply asked if... if Lizza and Maxx would meet with my dragon, Topolth, so that she could judge their potential."

Father considered that much for a moment. "There's nothing more to it? No further nonsense about handprints?"

"Hand prints, Master?"

"Never mind that. Lizza, I'll be fine here until your mother arrives - go with P'sky and meet the dragon. Maxx, are you going to be going too?"

"Umm... I only just have time to finish my snack," Maxx said, gesturing to his plate and beaker, which had been untouched during the drama, "and then I'll be due to return to class with Master Whitman."

"Very well, but tell him that you were searched," Father said pointedly. "I don't think that he'll begrudge you the opportunity."

Maxx looked away from everybody, but I was sure that I caught just a trace of a cringe. I wasn't sure what he'd do, but probably that wasn't my business now. I smiled and even waved at people feebly as P'sky escorted me proudly out of the Klah Lounge.

We took the main stairs down to Ruatha's front hall, and it became clear that P'Sky's visit to the Lounge had been just a small bit of a much greater search taking place all over Ruatha. He had mentioned that 'the wings' had come to Ruatha, after all, and I knew that there were an awful lot of dragons in even just one wing formation. I was only one of scores of young people being escorted outside to be paraded in front of various dragons in the open area outside Ruatha's front door. I spotted Aless half a flight of stairs ahead of me, along with the other Harper apprentices that studied here. Some rider 'searchers' appeared to be bringing along nearly a dozen potential candidates each.

P'sky led me through the courtyard, where a blue and a brown dragon occupied most of the available space, and through the outer gates to where a green dragon stood at attention, her wings furled to her back, but her knees mostly straight with only a slightly alert bend to them, and her neck stretched high so that her head was about twice as high off the ground as mine. I looked into Topolth's face for a moment, remembering what I'd learned about judging a dragon's mood by the shifting colors of their eyes, and then wrenched my gaze away for fear that maintaining eye contact would make it easier for her to read my thoughts, or make it more likely that I'd be considered a suitable candidate for the hatching. But those huge eyes had been generally greenish, tending to slightly yellow, and whirling quickly. So if I interpreted that right, Topolth was mostly content today, but somewhat nervous and excited about something.

"Topolth, this is Lizza. Do you think she'd make a good rider for a queen dragon perhaps? Or maybe a green like yourself, but... no, she might not be athletic and tough enough to keep up with a fighting dragon like you." P'Sky looked up at Topolth for a long moment, and I looked at his face. "You do? Great." P'sky raised his voice and called across the road. "Wingsecond? Yeah, we've got another one. Yes, it might be a challenge finding chambers for all of them before the Hatching, but best choice to the hatchlings and all, yes."

Something else caught my attention as P'sky went off to consult with his wingsecond - Topolth had made a remarkable sort of a yelping sound and backed away from us by a step. I nerved myself and looked at her again, to find her regarding me, her eyes whirling closer to yellow now. "What's that supposed to mean, Topolth?" I asked idly.

Certainly the last thing I'd really expected in that moment would be that Topolth would answer me, but there was no mistaking the sensation of the words that came, words that I could only just tell were inside my head, not sounding in my ears. _P'sky is not listening to me. I like you well enough, Lizza, but I don't think that you should be a candidate for this hatching. You have a strong and clever mind, but you are afraid of me. Girls who are so afraid of dragons should not go to the Hatching Ground. You could be badly hurt._

Fear shot through me when I realized that the dragon had been able to read a few of my thoughts, or at least tell my emotions. And she had told P'sky that I was afraid of her... and he'd disregarded it. Part of me wanted to ask the dragon if she knew why I was afraid - but that would just make it more likely that she'd be able to tell... or to plead for her to not tell P'sky more than she already had - but why should she listen to my pleas? P'sky had been her partner for many years - that was obvious in the age of both rider and dragon.

However, there was one thing that I could do to confirm my suspicions, if I dared. _Topolth, do you know why P'sky isn't listening to you?_ I thought at her. _Has he been given orders from other men? Other riders?_

_I'm not sure. Maybe his wingleader told him something._ Topolth sounded peeved, her eyes growing a brighter shade of gold. That was enough for me - I ran back towards the Hold gates - and didn't realize that somebody else was running towards me until we collided and both went sprawling on the brown earth surrounding the Hold.

"Lizza, what's wrong?" Mari asked as she quickly pulled herself back into a sitting position.

"It - it's the dragon," I whispered. "She really did, she could read my mind. Not that much, but she could tell that I was afraid. What if Maxx is right, if I'll lead the riders right to him? I mean, come on - Search is one thing, but they're taking far too many kids out to 'meet the dragons.'"

"Oh. I see." Mari took a deep breath. "Well, yeah, that explains some things. At first, when S'ven was so insistent, I thought that they actually thought I was a promising candidate, because of... my father." She stood up and offered me a hand. "And as much as I dislike the thought of becoming a Rider myself, I was actually looking forward to possibility of getting up to the Weyr and giving ol' Dad a piece of my mind."

"That might not be the best idea," I told her. "Remember how sensitive they say all dragons are to feelings and emotions, Mari. If you actually go to the Hatching ground feeling resentment against dragonkind for taking your father away, how are the hatchlings going to react?"

"Well, I didn't say that I'd actually go through with it." Mari shrugged. "Anyway, I'm still waiting to get an introduction; there really are enormous crowds of us 'young people' around, aren't there? Maybe it'd be better if we can sneak back into the Hold without having anything more to do with dragons?"

"Fine by me," I said. "But I doubt we'd be able to go through the main courtyard without getting spotted by a rider. Isn't there a side door that leads into the men's barrack hall, umm, over there?" I pointed somewhat to the left of the courtyard, looking in towards the Ruatha cliff-face.

"Ooh, sneak through corridors full of hot twenty-turn-old guys," Mari joked. "Such a horrible ordeal for us both."

I was getting pretty good at ignoring Mari's attempts at wit in situations where it didn't seem to be a good idea to join in. "What about... the others? I saw Aless in a group of apprentices being led out to the courtyard, and then lost sight of him. Do you know if Izabella was found and brought out? Maxx refused, for now. And I have no idea if they've gone to wherever Mechall lives."

"Yeah, Izabella's group was behind mine coming out of the residence corridors on the second level," Mari reported. "It's crazy, they're not taking any chances, like they're really looking for wanted criminals instead of would-be riders." Mari gasped then. "Do you think this has anything to do with what the other rider told you, about Thread men?"

"Well, yeah, that's what it looks like to me," I said, wishing I could keep from worrying over Maxx. "I don't know how they guessed that they'd be around our age, or if they're just working on the supposition because they have a great excuse in a Hatching search to bring a lot of kids our age up to the Weyr - and have them meet dragons here at Ruatha."

Mari thought about that for a moment, and picked up her pace towards the side entrance to the Hold. However, just as I thought we were about to reach safety, a blue dragon took off from the fireheights and glided down directly above the two of us. I immediately thought that trying to slip back inside unnoticed had been futile - they must have had dragons watching for anybody trying such a trick - or running away from the hold to the more distant cots for sanctuary.

And then, a rider emerged from the side door, with a handful of young men following him. "Well, who do we have here?" he asked in a big rolling bass voice. "And have you two lovely ladies slipped away before making your date with a dragon? I know that they're busy and it's frustrating to have to wait in line, but the moment is worth it in the end, I promise."

"Hello, sir," I said, stepping a little closer to him. "My name is Lizza, I'm Parker the baker's daughter. I've met Topolth, and P'sky went to talk to his wing-second. I wasn't sure what I should do next. And my friend Mari is frightened of dragons - we both are, really. P'sky says that I must stand on the Hatching ground, but that has to be some kind of a mistake. I could never become a rider - I have the greatest respect for the Weyrmen and their solemn duty, but I don't want to myself. And what if - what if I get hurt at the Hatching?"

I was throwing in everything I could think of, partly because I thought the rider might be less suspicious of me if I was babbling everything, and because I might only get this one chance. If we were right about the true reasons for this Search being held, (aside from the confirmed fact that there was indeed a clutch of eggs up at the Weyr who would need riders at the end of Hatching day,) then the riders would be most reluctant to let me stay behind. They could be pretty sure that I wasn't a Thread-girl myself, but I was the only one who had certainly had contact with one - they'd want to observe the way I interacted with other kids, hoping that I'd give away the secret - or that the dragons could get deep enough into my mind to read the truth.

The blue rider considered this for a moment. "You can go inside, Lizza - we know where to find you and your parents to talk about your choice. Mari, come along with us. Steveth isn't scary at all, I promise you."

I looked over at Mari, and she shrugged a bit. There seemed nothing for it but to take our chances separately this way.

#

The lower levels of the Hold were still a bedlam of riders herding young people around, with the occasional parent or Master either voicing half-hearted complaints of beaming in undeserved pride. I went back up to the Klah Lounge, but there were no customers left, and only my mother sitting at the table in the kitchen. "Did you hear about it?" I asked her.

"Yes, my darling," she said, patting another stool next to the one that she was occupying. I went over, sat down, and picked up a fist-sized sweet cake from the basket sitting there. "I want to be proud of you, but... well, has it occured to you that the timing of this seems suspicious, considering D'Peerce's visit a sevenday ago?"

I smiled, shaking my head. It had never occured to me that Mother would make that connection herself. "Yes, actually, I wondered about that too." I paused, but not really long enough to think things through. "Mother, when P'Sky introduced me to his dragon, green Topolth; she spoke to me. She said that she didn't think I should go to the Hatching Ground, that I was too afraid of dragons. But P'Sky had pretended that Topolth approved of me."

Mother paled slightly, and it took a long time for her to finish the mouthfull of klah that she'd taken. "Lizza, I have to ask you this now - do you know anything that you haven't told me about... about how you survived that fight unscratched?"

I paused, then nodded just slightly. "I can't tell you any more than that, Mom. I might be in danger myself because I know, and I'm putting somebody good in danger - somebody who doesn't deserve to get chased by the Weyrmen, no matter what they say about that metal egg falling from the sky."

Mother nodded. "Alright, I can accept that. Well we'll have to talk with your father and see what we do next."

"Can - can I testify about what Topolth said to me?" I asked.

"Perhaps, but we'll have to be careful about it," she warned. "Contradicting a rider can be a very serious accusation - especially since calling any man a liar might be considered a challenge of honor."

"But the Weyrmen don't take part in honor duels," I reminded her. "They can't, because the dragon would suicide if his or her rider dies."

"Yes," Mother agreed. "And so issuing an honor challenge to a rider can be considered a crime - because they can't accept it."

"And so they can use that legal loophole to punish us for daring to try and expose them as liars?" I asked, infuriated.

"If we try it too obviously, yes." Mother reached out and patted my hand. "There are other ways, though. Let's not worry about it yet. Is there anything that you can do to keep your mind off your troubles?"

I thought about seriously. Going anywhere in the Hold was unlikely to be distracting in any good way, just a reminder of the extreme lengths that the Weyrmen were going to find Maxx and Izabella and Mechall - and I couldn't do anything to help them, I didn't think. Trying to interfere with Mari hadn't worked out well at all. And it occured to me that if I wasn't where I was supposed to be when a dragon rider came to fetch me, that might just make things worse. "Can you close up here? I'd like some company back home, if that's alright."

"Of course, sweetie."

"Maybe we can pull out the checker set and play."

"Oh, I see how it is. You figure that wiping the board with your poor mother will be enough to restore some of your good mood."

#

It was early afternoon, just after an excellent noon dinner, that a small delegation of older men arrived at the door to our family quarters - Father, Lord Jerood and his Steward, Master Whitman and the Master Herder from the runner beasthold, and two riders. "Let's go up to the Louge to talk comfortably," Father said, nodding meaningfully at Mother and I.

I was expecting somebody to open with 'Let us speak plainly.' after the klah had all been poured and the fruits of Father's oven passed around the table. But nobody spoke plainly, perhaps because of the dangers of contradicting a rider, while the riders seemed quite happy for the plain truth to remain hidden. Finally Jerood cleared his throat and pushed away his plate, the square of biscuit upon it having only one large bite missing. "Ruatha is honored to look to Fort Weyr, Weyrleader, and to have our young men and women stand on the Hatching Ground. However, it is certainly... unusual for so many to be found here in Search. I understand that your Search wings wish... wish no fewer than eighty from the Hold proper to go to the Weyr and stand on the Hatching ground. And more from the cots within an hour's walk."

"Eighty?" Master Whitman exclaimed in astonishment - obviously he hadn't heard this detail before. "There are only fifty-nine eggs in Rosweth's clutch."

"But it has always been the policy of the Weyr to provide the best possible field of choice for dragon hatchlings," one of the riders said. From the authority with which he spoke, I assumed that this would be the Weyrleader of Fort, D'nan. "The only practical limit is that of crowding the Hatching Ground with candidates, and we're nowhere near that point."

"As a point of information, how many candidates will there be at the Hatching who are **not** from the Ruathan area, Weyrleader?" the Steward asked.

"I... I couldn't give you an exact number," D'nan told him haughtily.

"Approximately how many?" Father pressed, and D'nan exchanged a glance with the other rider, who wore the shoulder insignia of a bronze rider and Wingleader.

"I believe, approximately sixty-five in total, from the Weyr lads, Fort Hold, and South Boll," the Wingleader put in. "Perhaps a dozen more especially promising candidates were found search from other parts of Pern not traditionally looking to Fort."

"So, Ruathan young people represent more than half of the potential riders that your dragons have found for the Hatching, Weyrleader?" Jerood asked him. "You would tell me if there was any more to this than an honest effort to find the best possible weyrmates for your weyrlings, yes?"

"I tell you what you need to know as Lord Holder of Ruatha," D'nan answered, nodding his head.

"As Lord Holder of Ruatha, I need to know if you have taken it upon yourself to search my Hold and the cots that look to it for young travelers from far stars, and 'Thread-men' who fell from the sky!" Jerood pressed. "Yes, when the Wingleaders of Fort presented their testimonies to the Lord Holder's conclave fourteen turns ago and more, I was the loudest to acclaim them for their vigilance and approve their appointed duty to keep watch for trouble. It was in the mountains above my Hold that the eggshell had been found, after all. But there is such a thing as going too far. My holders and dependents, especially the young people of an age with Lizza, here, deserve better than baseless suspicions, especially since I have never heard any convincing testimony that these Thread-men have hurt..."

"Lord Jerood, please, if I may," D'nan interrupted, and Jerood broke off. "I promise you, you need not concern yourself over that. The wings of Fort Weyr are here looking for new riders, not travellers from eggshells. We desperately need a wide range of choice for the clutch, and you should feel proud that so many Ruathans have found favor with the dragons."

"Oh." Jerood seemed a little deflated, before his ego caught up and started to fill the space where punctured hostility had vacated. "Well, that's well enough then. Thank you for your reassurances, Weyrleader"

"And what of the right of Search refusal?" Whitman asked D'nan pointedly. "Weyrleader?"

D'nan focused on Whitman a little vaguely. "You.. are Master Healer Whitman?" Whitman nodded. "The teacher of Maxx, an apprentice, Journeyman Evans' boy?"

"Yes, as well as several other apprentices and a Healer Journeyman. Maxx is not the only one of my students who is... quite surprised at the thought of being taken for Search. There is also my own son, a harper apprentice."

"Well, Master, the right is what it has always been," D'nan continued. "If the child being searched and those who have a claim to responsibility over him or her agree unanimously on refusal, then the Weyr will not press the issue further."

Whitman considered this. "Then I will consider what you have said most carefully."

"Thank you," the Wingleader said. "Has anybody else important questions?"

Nobody did, and everybody ate in silence for a very long moment before awkward small talk began again.

#

Once everybody else had gone, Father turned to me. "Well, for you, it's only the three of us to decide, Lizza. Do you want to go up to Fort Weyr and take your chances on the Hatching Ground?"

I considered for only a moment. "Do I want to do it? No... but I think that it might be best if none of us objected. The Weyrmen will be watching me particularly, to see what I do, if I'm acting suspiciously."

"Lizza!" Father scolded. "Even in private, a little more respect for dragon riders!"

"In private, I will accord them the respect that their actions deserve!" I flared. I would have continued along those lines, too, if Mother hadn't managed to catch my attention by smiling in that really sad way that she had.

"Then give them what benefit of the doubt you can afford, my dear," she whispered softly. "I realize that this is terribly suspicious, but... but we don't know for certain that this is all an underhanded plot."

"Okay, very well." I sat down and reached for something that sat uneaten on the table. Though I put it into my mouth and chewed, I have no memory at all what it was. "If I give the riders a full benefit of the doubt... I'm not sure. Perhaps being a rider myself wouldn't be so bad. It's better than dreaming about getting into the Smiths or the Harper Hall without a local sponsor willing to take my part."

"Whatever you decide, we'll support you, Lizza," Father said. "Is - is there anything else that we should know first?"

I considered for a moment. "I... I've told Mari and Aless something about - about the person who helped me, the day of the knife fight. If anything happens to us... make sure that their parents know, about what D'Peerce told us all that day. They should understand at least that much. I don't care if they take the side of the Weyr after that, but I'd want them to know."

Father looked somewhat confused. "Is that it?"

"Yes, Father. I don't want you to be in danger for knowing too much too - or to be put in a situation where you'd have to make a hard choice." I looked around the Lounge. "I guess I'll need to pack up a few things in a carrisac to take to the Weyr. Do you have any idea how long the candidates will be living there, before the Hatching?"

"I heard it wouldn't be for at least a sevenday, maybe more," Father said. "They'll be exposing you to the eggs and teaching you a little about dragons, to get you ready for the day."

"Alright," I said. "Better pack as much as I can carry, then." Mother nodded. "What else am I forgetting?"

"You'll be riding a dragon between to the Weyr," Mother realized suddenly. "Dress as warmly as you can, to ward off the chill of 'between.' And it should probably be trousers."

I thought about trying to climb up onto a dragon's back in a tunic. "Yeah, that makes sense Mother, thank you."

#

Back out in the Ruathan gather square outside the courtyard, I joined the line of young Ruathans waiting for their dragon ride to the Weyr, and realized with an uncomfortable twinge in my stomach that I was staring at the spot between Maxx's shoulder blades. Well, there was nothing that could be done about that. We'd arrived next to each other in line purely by coincidence, as far as I could tell, and for me to break out of line at this point - again, too suspicious. I couldn't do anything that might attract attention to Maxx. In fact, staying next in line behind him, going up on the same dragon together as likely as not... if the riders were watching me, they had to think that I'd try to avoid associating much with the true 'Thread-man', since I was keeping his identity a secret from them. Thus, somebody who they did see me with - would be under less suspicion. Did that add up correctly?

We were at the head of the line when a great bronze dragon settled to the ground in front of us. I wondered if the bronze's rider was a wingleader, but there was no immediate way to tell. The blue rider who had been directing the overall progress of the queue waved us along, and Maxx stepped up to the dragon's front left leg, where we'd both seen other candidates climbing up, and then turned around to look behind him. I hadn't had any indication that he knew I was the one back there until that moment, but he smiled slightly, made a little bow and an 'after you' gesture. The blue rider smiled at that little gesture of chivalry, and two guys near the front of the queue applauded his aplomb. One of them, I was horrified to realize, was Kylo. The dragonriders picked him too? Well, he was around the right age, but... I forced down the objections that occurred to me and focused on climbing up to the dragon's neck, with the help of Maxx and the dragon's rider... and the dragon probably did what he could to help too.

In just a few minutes we were ready to go - me squashed between the rider and Maxx, with a third candidate, one of the younger Smith journeymen, sitting behind Maxx. I felt completely humiliated by the way my chest was pressing into the rider's back, but there was no other way that I could sit. Would he think that I was throwing myself towards the bed in his personal weyr? As I've mentioned, a lot of holder girls do want to impress riders in that particular way, but I had no interest in that direction.

The dragon took off, and we rose up above the Ruathan valley, turned to fly somewhat in the direction of the Plateau, and then the rider called, "Doltoth, take us between at the count of three. One, two, thr-"

I only had a few seconds to prepare for the sensation of between, and it wasn't quite what I had expected. There were a few things that were mentioned about Between whenever it came up in conversations, and even in teaching songs. The cold was definitely there, and the sensation of objects and even space not being real. I couldn't feel any part of my body, or that of Doltoth, or Maxx touching me, or my touching the rider. (Well, it would be hard to feel myself touching somebody else without feeling my own body.)

But Between was also supposed to be a very dark place, and I saw a light there, or at least I thought I did. It was a light that was shining from behind me, but didn't cast a shadow with my silhouette, (not that surprising if I was hardly there,) and it didn't illuminate anything in the nothing-ness of between, but still, I couldn't escape the sensation of the light being there, though I could hardly tell you what it looked like. Curious, I found that I could change the way my perceptions were pointing with respect to the light, though it wasn't really like turning my head around, and once I twisted that sight around enough, the light became blinding, and...

And we were out from Between, far up above a Weyr bowl, coming in for a landing. My head was still facing nearly forward, just turned aside slightly so that I didn't bump my nose into the rider's back, but I was more aware of Maxx behind me than anything else. Had a 'stranger' ever been through Between on dragonback before? Had he been the source of that light?

Had the other people perceived it too? Or Doltoth?

#

So we're all up in the Fort Weyr Candidate's barracks - not quite eighty of us, even counting the ones from the Ruathan cotholds, but nearly. Only a few actually refused the Search. And the six of us - three who are 'strangers' from far away, and three who know about them, all seem to have made the same choice that I did, to come because staying behind would look suspicious.

Actually, the girls rooms don't really look like barracks. I'm in one small dormitory along with Izabella and four other girls - there are three dormitories of female candidates, and Mari is in the third. I only got a short chance to speak with her after supper, and she kept complaining that she's been packed in with the other girls who are expected to impress green dragons if anything and won't be let near the queen egg. Frankly, though I tried to sympathize with her feelings, I don't really care what dragon egg they put me down in front of, though I'll do my best to steer clear of all of them without showing fright.

According to the Weyrling master's speech when we arrived, that's apparently key to surviving a Hatching without injuries. "If you act afraid of a dragon, especially a newly hatched one, then he's not going to think of you as a friend, or a potential partner," he warned. "If you're afraid enough and the dragon is hungry enough, then he - or she - might actually become convinced that you're dinner. If you're partly afraid and partly hostile - or just completely hostile, then the dragon might become frightened and lash out in self-defence." I took that much to heart, but a lot of the rest of the lesson seemed to be oriented around maximizing your chances of actually being picked to Impress, and that was something that I want to avoid nearly as much as I want to make sure that I don't get hurt. In fact, it might be better to get a small injury than to end up with a dragon who'll sense everything that I'm thinking about, all day every day.

I'm not sure about anybody else back in Ruatha, but I certainly didn't believe D'nan when he said that the Search at Ruatha didn't have anything to do with the crusade against Thread-men. It just hangs together too much. Ruatha has a reputation for providing the weyrs some good riders, especially queen riders, but we never have that many young people searched, either in terms of absolute numbers or relative to the other holds that Fort Weyr covers.

Speaking of riders from Ruatha, we saw Moreta, the Weyrwoman, at dinner, up at the head table in the lower caverns. Moreta was born in Ruatha, in fact she's a younger sister of Lord Jerood, and the old Lord and Lady Holder may have guessed that she'd be a Weyrwoman back when she was still a baby, if they named her after the Weyrwoman Moreta who gave up her life to save Pern from the plague, at the end of the last Pass. Since Ruatha has stayed in the family blood, she's a descendant of Lord Holder Allessan, who they said was Moreta's lover though that never got into any of the ballads, and his second wife, Lady Holder Nerilka, of the Fort Hold horde.

Moreta looked very striking and charismatic, a woman with short reddish-brown hair, (I guess all riders tend to have short hair, so that they can get it under helmets easily,) and it was hard for me to tell just how old she is. As much as I tried not to think about it, I kept wondering whether she believed in the Thread-men. Though I hadn't said anything of the sort to Topolth, it had run through my mind to plead for the dragon's silence, to get her to promise to keep our secrets. A dragon might keep secrets from his or her rider, they said, but never from the queen dragon. Moreta rode Rosweth, the oldest queen in Fort, and so she'd be able to find out the truth from every Fort dragon - if Rosweth went to the trouble of asking them all.

I haven't spoken with Maxx, Mechall, or Aless since... well, since Maxx and I were interrupted at the Klah lounge. I've seen them all since we arrived at the Weyr, but I don't know how any of them are coping.

Izabella disappeared from the dormitory as the other girls were settling in, and she shot me a meaningful look just before going, so I did my best to read between the lines and went off to look for her. After nearly giving up, I spotted her standing at the bottom of the main bowl, out of the way but where she could get a fairly decent view into the Hatching ground and see Rosweth fussing over her queen egg. "Okay, what did you want to talk about?" I asked her.

Izabella sighed and didn't speak up for a long time. "Maxx - Maxx told you a little about us, didn't he? After he helped you?"

"He told me a bit about himself," I said. "I guessed that it applied to you - and Mechall as well. He wouldn't say much, on account of the dragons."

"Smart of him." Izabella let out another frustrated breath. "The craziest thing is, more than anything else across all of Pern, I really would love to be a dragon rider."

"Yes, I remember you telling me so at Plateau Hold," I said. "It doesn't sound quite as strange to me now as when you first said it. But you have to realize that..."

"Yes, it would be a horrible risk on top of every other problem with that dream," Izabella admitted. "I know. If I impressed a dragon, she would know my secrets. It would be impossible to keep that from her, such a huge part of my life. And I don't think she'd be able to keep the secret from the other queens for long. I do realize that."

"Okay," I said, feeling awkward about this whole topic. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about." Izabella shrugged awkwardly. "Listen, did you experience anything strange about the trip here Between?"

Now Izabella turned to face me, and she scoffed. "Is there anything strange about Between? Isn't that like asking if the sun is bright? That horrible cold, the sense of not really being there, the darkness..."

Well, that more or less answered the question that I'd really been trying to ask. "But it's just what they talk about in the songs and the lessons? I mean, nothing other than what you just mentioned?" Izabella gave me a glare that was probably not quite as cold as Between, but seemed to be getting there. "Okay, well thanks."

"Why do you ask?" Izabella asked as she turned away and started back in the direction of our dorm. "Was it any different for you?"

"Well, just a bit." I sighed, then realized that she'd better know. "I saw a light in the darkness, or I think I did. It might - it might have even been coming from Maxx, as far as I can tell."

"Oh, no." Izabella's face fell. "Did anybody else see it?"

"They didn't mention it, but I couldn't exactly ask."

"Right, of course." Izabella took a deep breath. "I'll have to think about that. There wasn't anybody on my flight that I could trust to ask about it, either. Do you know if either of your little friends were with Mechall?"

"No, I have no idea."

"Hmm." Izabella shook her head, and it occured to me that it would be a shame if she actually did impress a dragon and have to cut off those long golden locks of hair.


	4. Chapter 4

After nearly a sevenday here in Fort Weyr, I've gotten used to waking up in the girl's dormitory with Izabella and the other queen rider candidate girls from Ruatha. There's another dormitory filled with possible weyrwomen-to-be from Fort hold, Boll, and one from Telgar. I keep thinking that they're the ones who really stand a chance - the Ruathan contingent is just together to see how we react to each other, but then, I suppose you never know. They say that Ruathan girls are often great Weyrwomen.

But the routine is becoming fairly settled now - down to the lower caverns for a quick breakfast and a mug or two of klah each, then lectures from the Weyrling master, and sometimes a more intimate 'dragon tutorial' with a young rider from the last Fort hatching, who have all just cleared out of the Weyrling barracks themselves, so that there will be room for whoever ends up impressing this time around.

The noon meal at the Weyr is a hearty dinner in the lower caverns, after which the candidates are all expected to help the domestic staff with chores, or assist riders with grooming and feeding their dragons, or just about any other drudge work that they ask of it. At least I'm used to that more than Izabella or the apprentice boys are. Mechall doesn't seem to mind, either - I'm not quite sure what sort of work he's used to doing around Ruatha, but I'm pretty sure that it's not glamorous or impressive.

Then supper is served - usually something fairly simple fairly simple and light with a tasty sweets course, and the evenings are free time in which we can relax or socialize with each other, visit with the weyr children of our own age, and so on. Of course, nearly all the boys our own age are de facto candidates, and some of the girls intend to take their chances impressing dragons too, though I've heard that a queen dragon will almost never pick a rider who's grown up in a Weyr. Nobody seems to know why.

I felt more comfortable avoiding Izabella and Mari and everybody else I knew from Ruatha when I could, and after trying unsuccessfully to insinuate myself into a trio of Fort cotholder girls, I've started eating with Willa and Nelsi, who call themselves lower cavern brats. Nelsi is the daughter of the Weyrwoman and Weyrleader, and Willa's mother was second-in-charge of the lower caverns, until she died of a tragic fall off a dragon a few turns back. Her father is a brown rider, and a Wingsecond, that is, one of the two assistants who train with a Wingleader and are ready to take over in case the Wingleader is critically injured in threadfall. At least, that's the theory, and I guess he'll see how well he does when threadfalls actually start.

"Mom says it'll be tomorrow, Lizza, that the eggs hatch," Nelsi volunteered as I spread fruit jam over the warm bread. "Probably close to sundown. Between her and Rosweth, they always know."

"Well, it's good to know that I probably won't need to finish my chores tomorrow afternoon," I said. "How early do we have to be ready before the eggs hatch?"

"Well, in my experience, it's business as usual unti the dragons start to hum," Willa put in. She was a few months older than me, and had stood for the last Fort hatching, when Nelsi hadn't been old enough. "Then you run to get into your robe and gather in the spot where the bronze dragons are to collect you. There's less than half an hour's warning."

"I see," I said. "I can't wait until the big moment comes!" I hoped that the girls couldn't tell that this was at most a half-truth - I wanted the hatching to come soon, so that it would be over as quickly as possible. As pleasant as it was to spend time with them, I kept careful watch over everything I said - I was sure that the girls weren't among the ranks of Threadman-hunters themselves, but might they say something to someone who was?

"Oh, and Mom has invited us to sit with her at supper," Nelsi added, rolling her eyes. "Such a great honor."

"Your mother - Moreta - wants to have supper with me?" I asked, feeling something clamp at my heart.

"Certainly. She's been back to Ruatha now and then when she can, hasn't made the trip in years with all that's got to be done to get ready for Threadfall you know, but somebody reminded her that she knows your father."

"Really?" I was quite startled by this little bit of news. I knew that Father had had many distinguished visitors coming to sample his wares, including local riders, but I would certainly have remembered if one of the patrons had been Moreta. Had those years been before I'd been working much in the Klah lounge myself. "Everybody seems to go on and on about Dad's baking."

"Well, they will, for somebody that talented - not that I know from personal experience," Willa said. "Have you learned the craft yourself, Lizza?"

"Some of it, but I don't have the talent." I considered, then admitted something to the girls. "I'd love to be allowed to study at the Smithcraft Hall of Telgar, but the local smith at Ruatha doesn't think much of girl apprentices for many a reason. So I haven't gotten a recommendation yet."

"Oh, then we should find some way to introduce you to the WeyrSmiths," Nelsi said, waving one hand back and forth in her delight at the notion. "They have to keep the flamethrowers in good order for the queen riders, and be ready in case any hold smiths in the Fort Weyr area have problems reparing the ground crew flamethrowers, and they've been keeping the ancient heat and plumbing system working forever - and they're espoused to each other. Husband and wife, so I certainly wouldn't think that either of them sees a problem with a woman being a smith."

I smiled and took a big swallow of Klah. "Thanks very much - if you can arrange the meeting I think that I'd like to talk to these smiths very much."

The weyr girls smiled, and then I had to finish up my breakfast and rush back to get ready for lessons. I only just made the time to note this stuff down.

#

Mari sat next to me during the lectures on thread-fighting formations today. Neither of us were paying too much attention, considering that we don't expect that we're really going to be riders, and even if we do, there'll be plenty more time to learn this stuff while the hatchlings are growing. The weyrling-master scolded us twice for gossiping together, and I really did try to pretend like I was paying attention after the first time, but it was just impossible to get Mari's mind back on track.

Because she's finally found her forsaking Bronze rider father, after days of asking pointed questions all around the Weyr and getting several of the domestics in the lower caverns and a few young green riders angry at her. He's now known as D'Luc, Classeth's rider, and he's one of the Wingseconds for G wing. I'm not quite clear on all of the relationships between dragon color and Weyr responsibility, by the way, but here's what I've figured out so far. Queen riders are always in some position of authority, even when they're newly impressed, and the Weyrwoman is the rider of either the oldest or the most fertile queen dragon in the Weyr. The rider whose dragon most recently flew to mate the senior queen is the Weyrleader, the dragon-man in charge, and so he's always a bronze rider, or almost always. (I heard a few of the weyrbred boys arguing about if a brown dragon could actually fly a queen if he was really big and fast and strong, comparable to the available bronzes. As far as I could tell, it's never actually been tried.)

Wingleaders, also, are pretty much always bronze riders, and wingseconds could be riders of either browns or bronzes, as the Wingleader prefers. There aren't that many bronze riders in the weyr, so most of them are either wingleaders or wingseconds, and the ones that aren't are generally seen as lacking in ambition or a sense of responsibility. In contrast, there are more brown riders, so the ones that qualified as wingseconds are proportionally extraordinary.

One other little tidbit that I've picked up, and then I'll stop rambling about this stuff. The right-hand man of the Weyrleader is usually not one of the other wingleaders, but a wingsecond in the Weyrleader's wing. But he's still just called 'wingsecond.' Personally, I think it would make sense to call that guy the 'Weyrsecond,' but I guess that's not in keeping with tradition.

So, anyway, Mari is torn between excitement that she's actually found D'Luc, and anxiety about what to do with that information next. Mari's been upset at how she and her mother were abandoned every since she was ten and the two of us pieced the truth of the situation together - that her father was never going to come back, that he **could** have taken Mari and Amada to Fort Weyr to live there with him if he'd wanted to, but instead he'd totally flaked out on both of them.

As far as Mari's able to find out, there are a few people who remember that D'Luc had a 'Ruathan sweetie' before he was taken on search, and none of them seem to think that it was weird that that girl was left behind in his past, but none of them mentioned that the two of them were espoused, or that Amada was pregnant. Mari's first plan was to confront D'Luc at the dinner table and try to shame in front of his wingriders and anybody else who was around.

"I... I wouldn't rule out that approach, but maybe we should be more careful about how you proceed with D'Luc," I whispered back. "Shaming a bronze wingsecond in the eyes of those to whom he's an authority figure... that would be a serious blow to his position and honor. He might try to retaliate against you and your mother in some way - making a complaint to Lord Jerood about you, after we get back to Ruatha, for instance. Or demanding that the Weyrleader throw you out of the Weyr alone, to make your own way back home as best you can?"

"Would the Weyrleader go along with that?" Mari asked, her eyes full of horror. "After he knows what D'Luc is like?"

"Weyrfolk tend to stick together, as far as I can see," I pointed out. "And there's another thing - weyr morals when it comes to couples and families are a little different. The dragon riders might not see what D'Luc did as being so shameful."

"They'd have to," Mari insisted. "Nobody treats their women so badly as that up here."

I shrugged. "Not really - if a bronze rider was tired of his partner, he probably wouldn't stay with her out of a sense of duty to the woman and their child... but he'd make sure that they were provided for. If you do want to shame him, that's probably the point to stress, not the lack of faith in his affections, but that he abandoned both of you to the charity of your mother's relatives."

Mari nodded. "And if I don't want shame, then what? I... I don't need to start trouble that could come back to haunt me, I suppose, but I want to come to some sort of resolution with D'Luc, something that would close the book on everything that Mom and I have been through."

"Let me think about that," I said.

"Well, I suppose I could talk to him more privately, tell him who I am, and give him a talking to that's stern but respectful at the same time - make sure he understands that his choices had consequences for the two of us," Mari continued.

I shot Mari a look a second before the Weyrling master shouted out our names again.

"Sorry, sorry. We'll talk about it later," Mari whispered. And then, wonder of wonders, she actually did close her lips together and keep them that way for the rest of the lesson.

I caught up with Mari when we were dismissed. There was usually a fraction of an hour free at this point for various minor errands and necessities before dinner was served. "Let's talk about this, I have an idea. But we'll need to go somewhere private. How about the stairs up tp the higher Weyrs? Nobody else is likely to be using them at this time of the day."

"I need to go back to my dormitory," Mari told me. "I passed Aless a note at breakfast, to meet me there."

"Okay," I said, and followed her silently until we were into the weyrling dormitory section. Most of the candidates were being housed there until the Hatching, including the girls who had been tapped as 'green riders' like Mari. The queen candidates were over in another section, that I suspected could also serve as overflow for younger fosterlings, if their foster parents didn't have room for them in their own weyrs.

When we turned the last twist in the corridor, Aless was leaning against the rock wall outside Mari's door. "Your roommate wouldn't let a boy in," he said with a wry smile.

"Okay, then I guess it's the stairs," Mari said. "I've found my deadbeat dad, and Lizza wants to talk about it privately."

"Alright," Aless said after considering it for a moment. "Which stairs, though? The ones here are usually pretty busy, most of the way up."

"Are there any corridors nearby that don't lead anywhere important?" I asked, frustrated. "There isn't much time left before lunch."

"Okay, we can try this route," Aless said, leading the way off in his turn.

I tried to follow close enough to whisper at him. "Have you been spending any time with - with you-know-who?"

"Some, with Maxx and Izabella," Aless said, panting as he hurried. "I hope that's okay - I wasn't sure if the Riders would know that I was your friend, or suspect me because of it - but nobody else from Ruatha seemed to want to be seen much with either of them, and I figured that it might be conspicuous that they were loners, so I did what I could to include them in larger groups. Haven't talked at all about the forbidden subject, though."

"That's good," I told him, nodding. "Thanks."

"I tried to get Mechall to sit with me at supper the day before yesterday, but he just sort of growled at me so I went with the other harpers and just let him pick his own place," Aless continued. "There's four boys here from the Harper and Healer halls, you know."

"I'm not too surprised," I said. "That seems a reasonable search proportion for the number of apprentices of the right age range."

"Okay, I think that we're private enough here, and don't have to keep walking," Mari pointed out. "Lizza, what's your idea?"

"Well." I turned around and leaned close to her. "Are - would you be willing to try to use your connection to D'Luc to help - our friends, if you can?"

"Well, sure I guess. Why - do you think he's really a Threadman-hunter?"

"I think that he might be," I agreed. "I don't know who's in on the 'Watch' that D'Peerce mentioned. It can't have been something that all riders are familiar with, or they wouldn't have been able to keep the secret from the common holders so well. But as a bronze rider and a wingsecond, D'Luc seems a reasonable rider to recruit."

"And what do I do, if he is?" Mari continued. What should I say? I can't just ask him to tell me who the hunters are and how they'd recognize a thread-person."

"I haven't worked it all out yet," I said. "But you could start with part of the truth - that I was interviewed by a wingleader - wait a second. Do we know if D'Luc is in D'Peerce's wing?"

"D'Peerce leads E wing," Aless put in. "He was doing a presentation on extreme takeoffs for some of the boys - oh, the second day we were here, and mentioned that when he introduced himself."

"Okay, that's good, I guess," I said, sighing. "E wing and G wing aren't even in the same flight. Anyway, tell him about the story that D'Peerce told me, say how upset I was about it, how I don't want to talk to riders myself but you wished that you could say something to reassure me on the subject."

"Hmm." Mari considered. "Okay, I guess that could work. Should I try going up to his table at dinner?"

"Yeah, no time like the present," I said. "Unless you can think of a good reason why not, Aless."

"No, let's play it out," Aless agreed.

Mari and I took seats as close to the table where the G wing say as we could, which wasn't close enough to be conspicuous, and the rest of the table was taken up by field boys from Southern Boll who teased us the whole way through. I did my best to just ignore them, but the saucy comments seemed to gradually heat up my face no matter how much I tried to keep my cool, and I could tell that it wasn't helping Mari keep her composure either.

Finally, two minutes after the sweet porridge bowls had been handed out for dessert, Mari got up and went over to the G wing table. The timing was my idea, pretty much - since she'd want to talk privately with D'Luc, it wouldn't be a good start to be disturbing him too early in the meal, but we didn't want him to slip out beforehand either. So she walked over, both hands firmly on her bowl, which I knew was the kind of thing she focuses on to avoid fidgeting when she's nervous.

I couldn't hear any words clearly from where I was, but the patterns of voices could be made out fairly easily - Mari asking something, and a fairly blunt dismissal. Then Mari said something else, which immediately prompted a chorus of comments from several of the nearby riders. Then one bronze rider - I assumed it was D'Luc, got up, said something which quieted the wing down, and picked up his own bowl of pudding and a large mug. Then he led the way towards the back caverns, into the kitchen area, and I couldn't see them from there. Hopefully Mari would find out something useful.

After dinner was over, a wingleader stood up to call out chore groups for the Candidates and any weyr residents who didn't have better things to do for the afternoon. I cringed when I recognized D'Peerce taking this duty - it was the first time I'd actually seen him since he confronted us at Ruatha over my healing, and I hoped that he didn't see me where I was sitting. But he had to know I was here, hadn't he? If the threadman-hunters had really planned this ruse to get Ruathans to Fort Weyr to study them and try to figure out who might be a 'visitor', then D'Peerce would be fully informed about the plot. He might have even helped to hammer it out.

My work group was assigned to help bathe and clean some of the oldest dragons today, the ones with riders that are getting up there in decades themselves so that they can't always take care of things like that themselves. The work groups seem to have been assigned to mix people up in terms of gender, age, and origin, so that there's mostly boys, (because of all the male candidates for the expected quota of fighting dragons,) and some girls, from the Weyr and various Holds and crafthalls. Some of the younger boys are inclined to play dirty tricks and goof around, but there's nothing too serious in terms of mischief, because nobody wants to get singled out for discipline from the Weyrmen. So the afternoon passed slowly, without too much incident except for part of my tunic shirt getting splashed at the bathing lake.

Because of the splash, I had to hurry back to the dormitory to change into a different outfit - I didn't want to go to supper with Moreta looking like that. When I got there, Izabella was sitting on her bed, and unrolling a skin with some writing on it that I couldn't make out. "Oh, hello Lizza," she said. "How are things doing? We never seem to talk anymore."

"It - it isn't safe to talk, when there could anybody around listening," I muttered, opening up the little press at the foot of the bed. But this seemed like a decent opportunity to catch up with Izabella - if somebody else came into the dormitory room, I should be able to hear their footsteps in time. "I'm doing alright. Mari went to talk to her father this afternoon, she might have found something that we can use."

"Who's Mari's father, anyway?" Izabella asked as I pulled out a long, fancy dress that would probably do. Mom had foisted it off on me, though I had told her that I wouldn't be going to any dancing gathers while I was at the Weyr. Maybe I'd have to thank her for anticipating what I hadn't expected. "I've met her mother, and one of her uncles, but..."

"It's a long story, and I don't think that we have time for much beyond supper," I muttered, stripping off my shirt and trying to use the dry part of the fabric to soak up whatever dampness was still clinging to the skin on my chest, shoulder, and back. Izabella quickly looked away, flushing. I guess I'd be a bit embarrassed as well if she were the one changing in front of me, but right now I was in too much of a hurry to care, pulling off my leggings quickly. "I've been invited to have supper with the Weyrwoman, but hopefully it isn't anything more than her being a fan of my Dad's baking too. You can - well, no, probably a better idea not to ask Mari to tell you the whole story about her father, though she might volunteer whatever she feels comfortable if you ask her how things went with him today. Or Aless might be willing to fill you in - I know that he's been spending a lot of time with you and Maxx."

"Wait a second, back up," Izabella said. By this time I had slipped the dress over my head and was making sure that it was falling in the right ways. Izabella rolled her scroll up, put it away in her press, and stood up. "Moreta likes the baking at the Klah Lounge?"

"Apparently, or she knows my parents from something else," I said. "She's Ruathan, you know."

"Well, yes, everybody knows that. I remember her visiting the Hold a few years back, but still, it's weird to think about her knowing about somebody like you. What are you going to do if... if she's looking for information about us?"

"I... I don't know. I'll try to put the three of you out of my mind as much as I can, but that will be tricky, and I'm not sure what else I could do. We'd better go now."

"One more thing." Izabella pointed down towards the ground at my feet.

"What, have I stepped into some trap that I can't see?"

"In a way." Izabella rolled her eyes. "Those grungy work boots do _not_ go with the dress. Change into some nice gather shoes."

I sighed. "I've got slightly nicer black leather boots."

Izabella shook her hair at me. "Well, you can try a pair of my shoes, and if those won't work, then I guess your slightly nicer boots will have to do."

#

Actually, Izabella's shoes were more comfortable than anything I've ever worn on my feet, which is a surprising thing since she's taller than I am and you'd think her feet would be somewhat bigger, but I wasn't about to complain as I took my place across the table from Nelsi, who was sitting next to her mother, and on the other side of her father. Somehow that unnerved me more than Moreta's presence - I should have realized that just because the Weyrwoman was inviting me to have supper with her, she wouldn't be far from the Weyrleader, but still, seeing D'Nan there had come as a shock. And yes, I know it's not the first time that I've sat at the same table with the man, if you count that conference at Ruatha that I was sitting in on, but since that meeting left little doubt in my mind that D'Nan is a key figure in the Threadman-hunter conspiracy, I wanted to have as little to do with him as I could contrive.

"Hello, you must be Lizza," Moreta said, smiling and nodding at me. She looked to be around my mother's age, a little skinner and more dynamic, with golden highlights in her hair. "I hope that you've been enjoying your visit to the Weyr."

"My duty to you, Weyrwoman," I said, with the appropriate little bow. "It's been a fascinating experience, but somewhat tiring, between chores and the lessons on dragons. I mean, I'm no stranger to hard work, but..."

"Yes, I do understand what you mean," Moreta said, filling up a glass with dark red liquid from a bottle, and the beverage sparkled and frothed as she poured. "A change in troubles can sometimes be much less good than a vacation. Here, try this cola juice, it's a favorite of Nelsi's."

"Umm, alright," I muttered as she passed the glass over to my hand, put it to my mouth and sipped tentatively. There was the familiar taste of grape juice in there, and other fruits, and a sharp sensation as the bubbles popped against my lips and tongues. "That's nice. When you poured it, I thought it was sparkling wine."

"I believe that the process is similar," Moreta said conversationally. "It's produced by a well-known Master Vintner over in Tillek, but the process doesn't produce enough alcohol to intoxicate. I'm glad that you like it."

I nodded pleasantly, thinking that though the drink was alright, its novelty compared to ordinary grape juice would wear off soon, and I'd rather have Klah in any event - and just at that moment Nelsi caught my eye and nodded slightly. I realized that she thought much the same of this 'cola juice', but had either not been able to persuade her mother that it wasn't a favorite, or had decided to play along.

"So, what do you think about the possibility of impressing a dragon queen, Lizza?" Moreta asked.

"Um, not that much, honestly," I blurted out before I could censor myself. "Err, that is, I don't think I'm likely to be the one that the queen picks. I understand that the green dragon thought differently-" except, of course, I had heard from the dragon directly that it wasn't so sure. "-and I'm pleased to take my chances on the Hatching ground, but still, I hardly expect that I'm still going to be here at the Weyr in three day's time. That is, assuming that the hatching happens tomorrow, as I've heard rumors."

"I think that guess of the timing is quite likely to be accurate," Moreta said, sparing one glance at her adolescent daughter. "Well, and then what, if you return to Ruatha?"

"Serving customers in my father's shop, as per usual."

"And nothing more? Is Master Parker training you in his specialties?"

"We've tried, and I can master the basics, but I'm not a great cook, or even a good baker." I sighed. Somehow I really didn't want to get into my Smith hall hopes with Weyrwoman Moreta, or mention my idea of wanting to be a Harper, though my singing voice was only passable. Father had actually taken me to an interview with Max's father, Journeyman Evans, months ago, before I knew Maxx's secret. Evans had said that he was very impressed with my quick mind and eager curiosity, but told me that the current MasterHarper believed strongly that no part of the the Harpercraft could or should be entirely divorced from music.

"You might be able to qualify for the Hall regardless, Lizza, if you were willing to work in vocal training for the chorus, and learn the harp and the pipes," he'd said at the end of the interview. "Your fingers are clever and Aless has been able to teach you the basics of the gitar quite quickly it seems. But I'm not sure that becoming a Harper apprentice would be a path that would offer you any true contentment, if you don't have a great passion for music in your heart. That is a question that you'll have to answer for yourself, Lizza."

I'd thought about that. "Thank you, journeyman. I'll have to think about that one. I love music, in general, but I'm not sure if it's the kind of love that would let me be happy with a life that's so much about music. Is - is there any way that I could train here with you, instead of going to the hall?"

"No, I'm sorry, Lizza." He'd shaken his head. "As a journeyman, I'm not entitled to take my own apprentices, and I'm not sure that either of the Masters here at Ruatha would want to take on another apprentice, especially a girl. At the Hall, on the other hand, girl apprentices are encouraged, particularly those with good voices - but I've heard some hints that they aren't exactly treated kindly once they arrive."

That had decided me. I did _not_ want to be heading off to the Harper Hall...

"Lizza, can you come back to us now?" Nelsi asked, waving a hand in front of her head and rousing me from that vivid memory. "The burgs are here, you should grab yours before it's cold."

"The what's?" I looked around the table and saw them - hot meat sandwiches, it looked like, along with a variety of dressings that we could put on ourselves. "Oh, right." I grabbed one burger and started to pile it high with fresh greens.

"So - would you like me to see if Rosweth could see what you were thinking about, Lizza?" Moreta asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Mom!" Nelsi yelled. "You promised me that you wouldn't tell her to snoop on my friends."

"Well, for anybody else I wouldn't," Moreta told her sweetly. "But if Lizza is going to stand on the hatching ground and 'take her chances' to become our next weyrwoman, then she's going to have to get used to the idea of a dragon sharing her thoughts. Come on, I won't share it if it's truly inappropriate. What do you say, Lizza - may I proceed?"

I hated this, but all of the riders at the table were staring at me now, including D'Nan - and D'Peerce, who I hadn't even noticed until now, nearly at the other end of the head table. Had they put Moreta up to this? Was she in on the plan herself? In any event, it would be suspicious if I declined - and Moreta might tell her dragon to listen in anyway, cued that I had incriminating thoughts that I didn't want revealed. There seemed to be no better course than trying to go through with it.

"All right, but tell her to use a light touch - this is my first time." I tried to not think about Maxx or the others, which, of course, is one of those things that's impossible to do by trying about it.

After a few seconds, Moreta said, "You can relax now, Lizza. Nobody's trying to touch your mind now. I swear it, on my honor as Weyrwoman."

"Okay." I took a deep breath. "Did you and Rosweth find out anything interesting?"

"Well, I'm not sure," she admitted. "You - you have very strong and somewhat confused feelings for one of the young men from Roswell - a boy who's here at the Weyr now. Maxx, Journeyman Evans' son?"

I had to distract D'Nan's attention from that connection, I knew, say anything about Maxx that wouldn't lead him to think that I was sheltering a thread-man. "Really, confused how? Maxx and I - well, until P'sky came into the Klah lounge a sevenday ago, we were considering an espousal sometime this year. Not that he's spoken to my parents about it yet, you know, but..."

Moreta and D'nan exchanged a look. "Well, that might explain it," Moreta admitted. "Between your love for him, and your anxiety about what your father might say, if he'd be willing to approve the espousal before Maxx gets his journeyman's knots, which would probably be more than a year away, yes?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "He'd have to go to the Hall at Fort Hold to be evaluated by the Masterhealer, wouldn't he?"

"Yes," D'nan said. "Well, I wish you both the best - and you may need it if one of you becomes a rider tomorrow and the other is left standing on the Ground. But such gloomy thoughts are not for a night like tonight. Where is this young man of yours? Let's see the two of you together, and drink a toast to your future. Maxx? Is Maxx of Ruatha, son of Evans the Harper Journeyman, present within my hearing?" D'nan has raised his voice to a loud calling that rang throughout the entire lower caverns.

"My duty to you, Weyrleader!" Maxx shouted back without missing a beat, and all around me, riders laughed.

"Your duty to the Weyrleader is to come when he calls, Maxx," D'Peerce shouted back. "Get yourself up to the head table, now!"

So soon enough, Max arrived, and at D'nan's direction I stood up and the two of us held both hands and gazed into each other's eyes, while D'nan and Moreta lifted their glasses of wine and called for a toast to the two of us. Then somebody, I don't think it was D'peerce this time, started a chant of 'Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss...'

"We might as well not drag it out," I whispered to Maxx, and lifted my head to his. He seemed stunned, for which I could hardly blame him, and didn't bend his down towards mine, so I worked my hands free of his so that I could put my fingers behind his neck and on the back of his head, to pull his lips down towards me. Maxx got the idea, arranged one of his hands on my shoulder and wrapped the other around to the small of my back, and kissed me gently.

The effect, though, was really anything but gentle. I can't really explain all of this in a way that makes sense to me, but I heard a huge crack of thunder, and felt a shiver go over all of my skin as if I'd jumped into a mountain lake. And then - well, this is the crazy bit, but I could see all around me, even though my eyes were closed and Max's head was mostly in front of my face. For a few seconds, we weren't standing in the lower caverns, but at the middle of a much larger open space, with sloping walls around - like the Hatching ground, or the central Weyr bowl. Wherever it was, the walls were mostly dark, but up all around the edges above my head, I could see glowing eyes looking down at the two of us in pairs. Curious eyes, whirling in friendly blue or green colors, but they made me shrink away in fright. I broke away from Max, and there was another little ripple of laughter at that, but nobody seemed to think that it was too strange. Maybe they assumed that I was nervous about showing my affections with so many people watching, which was the furthest thing from the truth.

It was the sense of so many dragons paying attention to the two of us. They hadn't appeared to be hostile, but as the episode with Moreta had shown, if a dragon saw something and told their riders, it could mean trouble for Max, Izabella, and Mechall - even if the dragon didn't mean them any harm. There was no possible way to convince all of those dragons to keep a secret from their riders.

"Oh- okay, are we done now?" I managed to say after trying to get my voice back a couple times. I stepped away from Maxx again, our hands falling away from each other. "I still haven't finished my burger yet, and it's getting cold."

"Certainly we can go back to eating," Moreta said. "But could we shuffle the seating to allow Maxx to join us? The table's a bit crowded I know..." She turned to look in Nelsi's direction, and I wondered if she was about to suggest that her daughter switch places with Maxx or something.

"As much as I'd like to oblige the Weyrwoman, my tablemates and I were enjoying a spirited game of tiles as we ate, and I'd rather not leave my team to deal with a missing player or a substitution," Maxx offered. "Perhaps we could dine together tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow will be hatching day, Maxx," D'nan pointed out, a broad smile on his face. "We will all likely be very busy beforehand, and I'm afraid I can't promise you much of my attention for the Hatching face, though you'll have my congratulations if you impress a dragon hatchling."

There was an awkward pause. "Well, perhaps we can find another occasion before I leave - if I don't impress. My duty to you both." Maxx bowed again, slowly, as if waiting for any objection, and then returned back through the large cave towards the table that he had come from. I shrugged and took my seat again.

#

Moreta and D'nan kept me involved in conversation all through the elaborate dessert course, (a flaming cake that was nearly worthy of my father,) I told them all about my life back in Ruatha, embroidered with a few made-up stories involving Maxx and our blossoming romance, It was surprising how smoothly the fibs flowed out of me, as if I'd been making up fantasies like that for turns - which I hadn't, at least not consciously. Maybe this incident should tell me that I really did have more feelings for Maxx than I'd admitted.

On my way out of the lower caverns, I kept an eye out for Maxx, and then spotted him making a beeline for me as soon as I'd left the head table. Well, I really should have expected that much. "We need to talk," I said, as he got close.

Maxx swept me up into his arms, and bent down towards me, but the whispered voice in my ear was cool. "I was going to say that," he said. "Where?"

"Umm - the viewing stands for the Hatching grounds?" I asked. "There may be a few people keeping an eye on the eggs, but it's a big place, so we should be able to have a little privacy."

Max let go of me with one arm, so that we could walk side by side, with my shoulders still gathered in his half embrace. One of my hands made its way to the waist of his pants, as if it had a mind of its own. "Rosweth will be there in the grounds, keeping an eye on her eggs," Maxx mentioned.

"Oh, right." I considered that. "I really don't think that she'll pay much attention to us - not unless Moreta tells her to, and Moreta's had her fill of snooping for tonight. I hope so, at any rate."

"Alright," Maxx said, and took a deep breath. "Well, let's try it."

I walked with Maxx, recognizing that he was more afraid of Rosweth than I was, but he was willing to go along with this plan because I'd suggested it, and I thought that it would be safe. Soon enough we had climbed to some of the highest seats in the Grounds, on the side closest to the entrance passageway.

"Okay, I guess it started this morning, when I was having breakfast with Nelsi and Willa - they're weyrbred girls, and Nelsi is the daughter of Moreta and D'nan. She said that Moreta wanted to have me sit near them for supper, so that's why I dressed up. Izabella even loaned me her shoulders. And -" I took a deep breath, and reviewed everything about the conversation that I could remember, including my flashback to talking to Maxx's foster father about becoming a Harper girl, and Moreta's little 'game' about having Rosweth peek into my thoughts, to get me to feel more comfortable about the prospect of possibly becoming a queen rider, and how I'd felt trapped and unable to demur without attracting more attention.

"That sort of reaction seems to keep getting us into more and more trouble," Maxx pointed out. "What could they have done if you'd refused?"

"Gotten dragons to spy on my thoughts every moment, once they knew that I was really keeping secrets," I said. "If D'nan thought that the secret had to do with a thread-man."

"Right, okay, I see your point," Maxx said. "So, how does this relate to why I was called up to the head table to kiss you?"

"Well, I'm almost at that part," I said. "Moreta mentioned that she'd seen confusing feelings that I had for you, and so I said the only thing that I thought could explain it without making the riders think that you were the thread-man. I said that we wanted to get espoused, but you hadn't told my father yet."

Maxx shook his head for a long moment. "News of this is going to spread down to Ruatha pretty quickly."

"Yeah, I know," I admitted. "When dragons go down to pick up parents and other very important people, tomorrow. But I think that we should be able to figure out a way through. It's better than the alternative, isn't it?"

Maxx smiled. "Don't think that I'm not grateful, and yes, playing the role of your attentive gentleman friend, even a gentleman friend who might have a detail or two to settle with Master Parker, is certainly a much better deal than whatever the riders might have in mind for thread-men." He shook his head. "I'm still worried about this - if D'nan and D'peerce would put Moreta up to this, then who knows what else they might have planned? Do you think that Moreta's after thread-men too?"

"I can't be sure, but I don't think so, no," I muttered. "And it might be bad news for D'nan when Moreta realizes that he's been using her as a pawn. So - what next?"

"We should probably stay up here for a while, it'll help give the lie credibility," Max admitted, sliding closer to me. "And tomorrow is going to be Hatching day, it seems. I'm still not sure what that might mean. Do you think any of us will actually impress a dragon?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Mari and I have been trying to figure out a strategy to make ourselves seem undesirable to a hatchling dragon - and we've talked about that with Aless a few times now. But it's the dragon that chooses." Something was nagging at me about that, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Oh, shards - I'll have to leave soon enough to talk to Mari about her abandoning rider father before bed check."

"What about her father?" Maxx asked. "I mean, I know that he's here somewhere, but..."

"She went to talk to him after dinner," I said. "Was going to see if he knew anything about the visitor-hunters."

"Wasn't that dangerous?" Maxx asked. "What if he's one of them, and starts to get suspicious?"

"Well, it seemed to be worth a try." I folded my arms in front of my chest - probably a way of defending myself against his criticism. "We can't always be cautious."

"Okay, okay. If you want to go now, you can go - but probably we should kiss once more, just to keep up appearances."

"What appearances?" I looked around, and realized that Moreta and D'nan were standing on the hatching sands. Perhaps they had originally come to inspect the clutch and consult with Rosweth, but right now they were both looking up in our direction. I wish I could know what they were thinking about us.

"Okay, twist my arm." I leaned over and pressed my lips to Maxx again, and it was just as explosive as before, without any creepy dragon eye sensation. (I hadn't mentioned that to Maxx yet, and he should know - and about the light I saw going Between with him, and the rest - but there'd probably be other chances to talk privately now that we were play-acting lovers.) I did catch a glimpse of one unusual place, though - a sunlit jungle of some kind - maybe near Igen Hold somewhere?

"You know, at some point I'm wondering if our hopes to espouse each other aren't going to be so much of a facade for the benefit of the dragon riders," Maxx admitted, brushing a lock of hair away from my forehead once I'd drawn back a little, less abruptly than last time.

"Yeah, umm, I know what you mean," I said. "Can we meet up for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Why not," Maxx said, and waved as I rushed down to the grounds and hurried around the edge of the warm sands. I couldn't concentrate on where to find Mari, with all of this Maxx stuff swirling around in my head.


	5. Chapter 5

I'd hoped that things would have calmed down somewhat since last night, but the entire Lower Caverns seemed to erupt in cheering, whoops, and whistles as I made my entrance and approached the table where Maxx was sitting. Izabella was next to him, but nobody else was sitting very close. I shot her a look as I took the seat opposite Maxx.

"I'm here to chaperone, officially," Izabella told me. "Our parents would expect nothing less of me, after hearing that Maxx was considering espousal with a girl that they hadn't even been officially introduced to."

"Oh, joy," I told her. "Well, the 'meet-the-parents' thing will come soon enough, but first, effectively, we'll have to get through the Hatching itself."

"What, don't they let us see our families first?" Maxx asked, only seeming slightly disappointed. "I mean, I know that they'll be up here before the Hatching is supposed to begin, and we'll be here."

"Yeah, but it's tradition that we don't see each other," Izabella put in. "Or maybe that only goes for the Queen rider candidates."

"I don't think so, I asked M'rac about it later," I put in. M'rac was a bronze rider who'd given some of our orientation classes, though he wasn't the official Weyrling-master. "They don't treat it very seriously, to the point of sequestering all the candidates or anything, but it's not like we'll be taken off pre-Hatching duty beforehand to spend time with our families either."

"Right, okay," Maxx muttered. "Does anybody have an official ETA on the hatching?"

Izabella caught my eye and then shook her head, which I took to be a silent comment on her brother's tendency to try and take charge of the situation, no matter what. I suppose that I'm a little that way myself, which is going to make our relationship interesting whatever life throws at us. "Scuttlebutt in the girls' rooms says late in the day, maybe the fifth hour after noon."

"Nearly sunset, this time of year," Maxx pointed out. "Okay, so if they're going to try to keep us busy for most of the time that our parents are around, and not leave anybody too tired for the Hatching itself, then there may be some free time in the morning. Does Mari have any news from her estranged father, Lizza? News relevant to our investigations, I mean."

"Yeah," I said. "How much detail do you want it in?"

"Only the headlines, from you. I think that we should be able to meet with her, before too long."

"Okay, well - he's heard stories about strangers from the sky - not called Thread-men, as such, but there's usually a tinge of menace to the stories, if not a direct attempt to link them to thread. He was able to give Mari some ideas about who miight be in on the conspiracy, and who wasn't."

"It sounds like he was being as helpful as he could," Izabella mused. "But can we trust him? I mean, this is the man who abandoned Mari and her mother as soon as he impressed a dragon."

"Well, Mari thinks that she was able to make him feel guilty," I said. "But it might be good to treat his information as suspect until we can confirm his reliability." I turned to Maxx. "Is there anything else?"

Max hesitated for a moment, and shot a sidelong look at Izabella, but she just shrugged off any implication that she ought to make herself scarce. "Yes, but it's not about the topic of dragonmen hunters. Lizza, am I right in thinking that you're uncertain about your path in the world."

I couldn't even speak for a few breaths. It was both thrilling and terrifying that Maxx could put into words something that I had never hinted to him about, and couldn't even have phrased so well if I'd wanted to. Did his strange powers afford him some kind of window into my soul, when he kissed me? After all, I'd managed to get some kind of a peek into his mind, that first time he held me, up on the Ruathan fire-heights. (What would have happened if he'd kissed me that time?)

Eventually, of course, those big feelings faded somewhat and I was able to awkwardly speak up. "Yes, I guess so, if you're speaking of a craft or other work. Mother and Father say that I'm bright enough that I should learn a craft, and I'm good enough at following my Father's trade, but I'll never be able to make Journeywoman as a baker. Your - your father had warning words about what it might be like for me to try following the Harper craft, and I've thought of being sponsored to the Smiths, but old Master Cready threw me out after I..."

"What about the Healers?" Maxx interrupted with a little smile. "I admit I have an ulterior motive for wanting you to join in my own trade, but I think that it might be good for you."

"I - I faint on seeing blood," I admitted.

"Not the best recommendation for a surgeon, I admit, but we do little enough of that these days, or even bandaging bleeding wounds. And the fools who recommended bloodletting and phlebotomy for any illness under the moons are laughing-stocks of hundreds of turns back, thank the first egg."

"Well... what could I do, then?" I asked, suddenly curious about the possibilities. That memory of my faintness when confronted with a fresh wound had kept me from seriously considering a life with the Healers for nearly ten Turns, and I suddenly wasn't even sure what other tasks they might have to perform.

"Well," Maxx started carefully, "there's mixing herbs and administering them, preparing salves like numbweed, checking on patients, even setting injuries like broken bones if your constitution will permit that..."

"It sounds like the Healer's assistant's work," I muttered.

"Perhaps," Maxx admitted softly. "But the Healer's assistant is a member of the Craft Hall in good standing, as often as that can be managed, though sometimes we might have to rely on a Holder volunteer with less formal training. No, you'd probably never be a Master or even the senior Journeywoman Healer at a Hold without being able to conquer your fear of blood, Lizza. But is that kind of ambition really something that you'd need to fulfill to complete your life? An assistant Healer still has a comfortable life for herself, and does good work, helping people."

I smiled, without saying anything for a long time. Maxx was definitely challenging my assumptions about myself, and I decided that I liked that about him. "Thanks for thinking about that, darling," I said. "I'm not ready to make any decisions yet, but we could go to talk to Whitman together when we get back to Ruatha... assuming that we do go back, that is, instead of impressing baby dragons tonight."

"Don't even talk about that," Maxx muttered darkly.

And then, finally, a woman came by with the griddle-cakes, redberry syrup, hashed tubers, and tiny little sausages. As the three of us were loading down our plates, two new people hurried up to our side of the table, calling out to make sure that the food wouldn't be taken away until they'd arrived. At first, I was worried about strangers interrupting us, but then I recognized Mari's voice, and Aless'.

"Should all five of us be gathered together like this?" Maxx muttered darkly as they sat down.

"Come on, Maxx, my friends aren't bringing any more suspicion on you and your sister than I would have done by myself," I whispered back to him.

"Well, you've managed to throw red herrings over your own trail, Lizza," Izabella pointed out in a low voice. "But yes, I don't think that the secret brotherhood of Riders is going to expect a conspiracy of silence to be meeting under their noses. Probably just as well if Mechall doesn't join us, though."

"No danger of that, as far as I know," Aless put in, not as quietly as the rest of us had been talking, but not really loud enough that anybody else was likely to overhear him. "So, speaking of red herrings - is this affair of the heart between you and Maxx just a smoke screen, Lizza? To fool the riders?"

I hesitated for a moment, and looked over at Maxx. "It started out that way," I admitted. "Now, I'm not quite so sure anymore."

Maxx hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Our feelings seem to be growing stronger with each kiss, so far."

"Okay. What's a herring, anyway?" Mari asked. "Aside from something red that you can use as a false clue?"

"That's one of the great mysteries of Pern," Aless put in. "So, what..."

"I think, since you're here, that I want to hear more about your meeting with your father, Mari," Maxx suggested. "If you're okay with telling Izabella and I."

"Well, alright, sure," Mari said, and took a deep breath before beginning her retelling.

#

So, I went up to D'Luc at the noon meal, and introduced myself, and at first he thought that I was looking for special treatment at the Hatching or propositioning him or something, so I ended up blurting out that he'd been close to my mother, which got his tablemates talking and taunting him, so D'Luc took me back into a small room near the kitchens where we could speak in private.

"It's Mari, right?" he asked once we were alone. "I was... was wondering if you'd come find me, especially now, with so many girls up from Ruatha. I didn't want to ask about you by name, if you'd been Searched, but..."

"Well, why didn't you?" I exclaimed, even though I hadn't meant to confront him like that, it just sort of slipped out. "I can't even tell if you're ashamed of the way that you've treated Mom and I, or if we've honestly never crossed your mind all these years."

"Of course I'm ashamed!" he shot back. "What do you think of me? But what else could I have done?"

"Just about anything," I said, trying not to really lose my temper. "Drop by to say hello, offer to take me for a ride or something, even send a message skin. No matter what you made up your mind to do to show us that you still cared, it could hardly have been worse than absolute silence."

"I have little enough to offer you," D'Luc grumbled. "And that would become nothing if my dishonor was known at the Weyr. Mari - you don't understand how bad it is. I forswore that you were mine. I have no excuse for doing so, I was a younger man and wasn't... I just did it. If the Weyrleaders find out that I have impugned their honor, they will cast me out... unless I wait until thread has started falling. Then a different standard of discipline will pertain - I'll be stripped of my responsibilities and given extra duties, but they can't cast out a fighting rider during a pass unless his offense was against the safety of other dragonriders. If you and your mother can hang on that long, then you'll have my open support, for what it's worth."

I just sat on the little stool in the corner for a long moment, trying to absorb this. It was not what I'd expected my father to say when I'd met him, and... and as much as I'd blamed him for being absent all my life, I could understand him wanting to avoid facing the consequences of his original mistake that way. It was probably what I'd do, in his boots, and his rationalization made some sense.

So I shrugged off the entire question for a while. "Then we can leave that for another time, D'Luc. There's something that you might be able to do to help me, and it wouldn't imperil your honor - at least, not on that score. Have you heard of a secret brotherhood of riders sworn to discover Thread-men hiding among the Holders?"

D'Luc stared at me. "What on Pern is a Thread-man? Threads don't walk as men do."

"No, but... they believe that people, of a sort, came from the sky, and that those people are dangerous. That it's the job of dragon riders, or some riders, to prevent them from hurting the Pernese who've been here for longer."

"Oh, the stories about the strangers from the metal egg." D'Luc laughed. "That's just talk for around the hearth, late at night."

"No, it isn't," I insisted. "D'Peerce came to Lizza and questioned her about it. He believes that she's involved with Thread men, and said that other important riders were with him."

"Well, D'Peerce wouldn't be one to joke about a thing like that," D'Luc said. "If there is such a secret brotherhood, then they'd have to be very few. Most of the Wingleaders might be involved, and possibly up to a dozen other riders in Fort Weyr. Any more, and I'd know about it."

"And the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman?"

"No, I don't believe that Moreta would have anything to do with that. She doesn't credit the stories of the Stranger, I believe that she isn't faking her attitude there. D'Nan's probably leading the whole thing, surely enough, it would be like him."

"Okay," I said. "Thank you. Lizza will be - reassured to know that much."

"Wait a second," he said, when I got up and tried to leave. "Just what is this friend of yours tangled up in? Does she actually know strangers who came down from the sky? Is - is this the reason we were told to Search as many likely lads from Ruatha as we could, and girls of the right ages too?"

I looked straight at him. "I can't tell you any more right now, father. It would impugn our family honor to break a vow of silence I swore for a friend."

He took a step back towards the wall as if I'd struck him, and I turned my back on him and went back to the larger cavern. Noon meal had been dismissed by then, so I went to find out what chores my work group had been set. And that's that.

#

"Thank you for telling us, Mari," Maxx said. "Every little bit of information about those who are hunting us helps."

"Do you think that maybe D'Luc will keep the secret for us, for Mari's sake?" Aless asked. "He seems to genuinely care about her, and regret that he couldn't do more to help support her before this."

"We don't tell any dragonriders, no matter how much we might want to trust them," Maxx insisted. "They can't keep the secret from their dragons, and the dragons can't keep secrets from each other."

"Are we sure that they can't, if they want to?" Izabella asked.

"Not from the Queen dragons, I think," I said. "Nelsi mentioned something about that. But if Moreta isn't one of the hunters, can D'Nan order her to have her queen ferret out secrets?"

"Maybe, and maybe not," Maxx said. "It's still too close a thing. We don't risk it."

"And what on Pern is going on between you and Lizza, Maxx?" Mari asked him. "I always thought that the two of you might be a good match, but this hardly seems the best time."

"It started out as a diversionary tactic, to keep the riders from suspecting him," Izabella said dryly. "But now it seems that they actually are falling for each other."

And that was about as much as we could say in whispers, because three Riders sat down nearby and started to loudly speculate, and make wagers, on the outcome of the Hatching, and soon enough breakfast was over and the schedule for Impression day was announced.

#

"Lizza, there you are at last!"

I looked up from the two big kettles of soup that I'd been minding at the sound of my mother's voice. "Hello, mother. I trust you had a pleasant ride up to the Weyr."

It was clear from the stern look on her face that the 'polite and pleasant' routine wasn't going to cut out any ice with her at the moment. "Umm, I think I need to get somebody to take over for me here, so that I can go on break," I announced to the kitchen cavern at large.

The Lower caverns headwoman instantly turned around and assessed the situation. This was Willa's mother, as I mentioned, a formidable lady named Morgani. "Would this be your mother, Lizza?"

"Yes, I am," Mother said. "Holder Nancyn, of Ruatha. My duty to you, Headwoman."

"Welcome to the Weyr, Madam Holder," Morgani replied smoothly. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but by tradition the Candidates are not released from their duties to spend time with family before the Hatching. Queen riders are put in a position of some authority of the support personnel for the Weyr, in addition to their other responsibilites, so we take the chance we can to make them work alongside us."

"Oh, I understand that," Mother replied. "My Lizza's no stranger to hard work in the kitchen. But - I really do need to have a word with my daughter, and I'm afraid that after the Hatching will simply not be soon enough. I won't keep her long."

Morgani considered. "The sixth part of an hour now, and I'll see if I can arrange for you to be sitting together at the noon meal." She looked around. "Anybody see a girl next to them without enough to do?"

"Myself, actually," Izabella called out from a few spots down the counter, and quickly enough she took over for me at my little stove. Soon Mother had led me out to a small table in the dining cavern - and Father was there waiting.

"I guess that I've got some explanations to make - about Maxx and I?" I hazarded weakly.

"Just... just reassure me that he's not threatening you into this," Father said in a low voice. "The rumors that got back to Fort Weyr don't make any sense - not the part about you and Maxx spending time together and falling in love, actually. That part is plausible enough. But..."

"But we can't believe that we've ever done anything to make you believe that you can't come to us about a young man that you liked, especially if it got this far," Mother finished.

"Okay, then I'll make this quick, so we can catch up on other things before I have to go back to the soup," I said. "I'm under no pressure from Maxx - in fact, if anything, I surprised him with the way I went public for both of us in front of the dragon riders. And - well, this thing hasn't really been going on between us for very long, well, it started a little before that knife-fight happened in the Lounge, I guess you could say. But it's real, at least, I really love him, and I think that he feels the same way. Just - just don't do anything to ruin the illusion, alright?"

Father just looked somewhat blank. Mother rolled her eyes, but she was smiling slightly. "I wonder if the Headwoman will be able to get all six of us together for the noon meal - we three, Maxx, and his foster father and foster mother?"

"Doesn't Maxx have a flighty sister too, or a foster sister?" Father asked.

"Izabella is **not** flighty," I insisted firmly. "In fact, I've gotten to know her lately - we're in the same barracks room."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, immediately chagrinned. "I guess I jumped to conclusions a little, and yes, I do realize that I always tell you not to. But - she doesn't work a craft, she doesn't help out in the Hold kitchens. Just what does she do with her days?"

"Umm... I'm not exactly sure," I admitted. "We're not really close like that. But - but see if we can get her for the Noon meal too, alright?"

"Sure, honey," Mother said. "We have a little time before you need to go back. Do you think that you just might impress the queen hatchling?"

"Shards of the first egg, I hope not," I muttered.

#

Mother didn't manage to get all seven of us sitting together for lunch. She got four - herself, myself, Father, and Journeyman Harper Evans. Maxx, Izabella, and their foster mother had managed to get together a few tables away.

"So, Lizza, Master Parker," Evans said. "It sounds as if we have some business to discuss in principle. Nothing firm, of course, especially not with the matter of the Hatching still to be decided."

I thought about saying that the Hatching wouldn't change anything, but didn't end up opening my mouth. I'd been counting on either having Maxx there beside me, and Izabella around for moral support too, or possibly just having table conversation with my own parents. Evans was a good and friendly man, but I didn't know how to deal with him when he was acting like this.

"No need to treat it like business yet, Journeyman," Father said with his biggest smile. "The kids may act impatient, but that's just kids being kids. And I'm sure that even Lizza and Maxx realize that it would be better to wait for a formal contract of espousal until Maxx has walked the tables with the Healers, right Lizza?"

"Yes, of course," I said brightly. "We're both young, and there's still time."

"I suppose that there is, at that," Evans said, picking some meat slices off the tray that was being passed around, and handing it to my Mother. "Speaking of which, Lizza, have you had any better luck finding a compatible trade of your own."

"Not luck yet, but Maxx actually mentioned a notion to me... a few days ago, just after we got to the Weyr," I said, covering. If I'd admitted that this idea had only come about this morning, it would seem far too providential. "I'd never seriously considered the Healer craft on account of my - I have a bit of a problem with seeing blood, but Maxx thinks that if I'm started on a Healer's assistant track, that might not be a serious issue."

Father, Mother, and Evans exchanged glances. "Why did I never think of that?" Father exclaimed.

"I did," Mother said. "And I tried to make her realize that the door wasn't barred to her there, but I suppose it took someone with more than motherly charms to actually get my Lizza to believe in herself."

I smiled awkwardly. Evans cleared his throat. "Well, I wish you the best of luck with your new craft, Lizza. And on the Hatching ground, though I get the impression that none of you kids really have your hopes set high."

"No, maybe we don't," I admitted carefully. "The Weyrmen, whatever their reason, seem to have wanted to give the dragons a wide choice of Ruathan young people, but - well, the dragons will make their own choices, and that's about it. I've learned how to be careful on the Ground and not get myself hurt, but I'm not going to try to make myself an especially good choice for a gold dragon. Either she likes me as I am, or she doesn't."

"That seems an... well, a respectable outlook," Evans muttered.

"You know, Healer Whitman came up too, to see Aless," Mother put in. "I suppose that Maxx is going to take you to see him when he can."

"Yes, I guess so," I agreed. "But not until before the Hatching, I think."

A rider sat down in the empty spot next to Mother at this point - and not just any rider. With a sinking heart I recognized D'Peerce. "My duty to you, Weyrleader," Mother said, setting off the obligatory exchange of courtesies.

"Welcome to the Weyr, Master baker, Madam Holder, Candidate Lizza," D'Peerce said once he had his own duties out of the way. Then he stretched out his hand in a friendly gesture towards Evans. "Journeyman...?"

"Harper Evans, at your service," Evans said. "The Harper without a voice left to him, which I usually mention to those I meet to keep from being pestered to perform."

"Ahh," D'Peerce answered with a smile. "Then what specialties of the craft do you practice, Journeyman Evans?"

"Legal counselling and arbitration, mostly - that and teaching. Occasionally I perform on an instrument in the evenings, but I was never expert with a gitar and there are enough drummers in Ruatha who can help carry the harmony."

"Well, it's good to meet you. Do you also have family standing as candidates?"

"Yes." I tried not to wince as Evans pointed over to his family. "My foster daughter Izabella was selected as a queen candidate, Wingleader, and my son Maxx will also be on the Grounds."

"Oh." D'Peerce's interest grew sharper at this point, his eyes moving between Evans and I. "So you are the foster father of Lizza's mysterious suitor."

"I suppose so," Evans said, looking around at all of us. "Does the whole Weyr know about the hearts of our children?"

"Not quite, at least in such detail," I muttered. "But D'Peerce was up at the head table when - well, the Weyrwoman asked permission to have Rosweth look into my mind, because she didn't want me to be frightened of the idea of a dragon seeing my thoughts. And she was a little puzzled by what Rosweth saw about Maxx, so I tried my best to explain."

"Yes," D'Peerce said. "And D'Nan made a big fuss over the whole thing, and asked for Maxx to come up to the head table, and somebody started calling for the two of them to kiss."

The way I remembered it, D'Peerce had been at least an accomplice in calling Maxx up to the head table, but I didn't point that out.

"What do you think Lizza's chances are at the Hatching, Wingleader?" Evans asked.

D'Peerce turned to look at me. "I'm sure that Lizza and her friends will surprise us, one way or another."

#

"Alright, listen up girls," Moreta called. "Does everybody know what she's about, one way or another? I want no surprises in there. If you surprise a newborn dragon, you get hurt."

I shuddered, remembering D'Peerce's words, but didn't do anything else to draw Moreta's attention to me. The walls seemed to be vibrating with the throb of humming dragons, and that sound got stronger as Izabella, Pamasa, and I climbed aboard a huge bronze dragon. As I took my place on the dragon's humming neck I realized that the rider was none other than D'Nan himself - that had to be unusual. Was the Weyrleader usually part of the tradition of flying queen rider candidates into the Hatching Ground? Or had he seized on this opportunity to observe both of us. I tried to distract myself by concentrating on remembering the name of the Weyrleader's dragon. I knew that I'd been taught it, during classes full of the names of prominent riders and dragons from the nearest Weyr, but couldn't bring the right sounds to mind. Umuth? Eenith?

_That's very close. My name is Unith, Lizza._ I nearly fell off Unith's neck, but managed to avoid gasping loud enough for anybody but Izabella to hear me. Were dragons always going to start talking to me at the moments that I least wanted them to? (Not that there was ever really a good time for a conversation with a dragon, now that I knew Maxx's secret, but still, some were worse than others.)

_Why are you worried, Lizza?_ Unith continued. _Why are you trying to distract yourself from what is about to happen? Hatching day is a __**happy**__ day! New baby dragons are about to begin their lives, and young people like you will get a chance to start their lives over as well, joining with a dragon friend who will be more than a friend, a partner for all their lives. Don't you want to have a dragon to share your life with?_

I tried to stay mentally silent, but somehow a thought just came together in my head. _I'd love to have a dragon partner who I can trust and depend on for all my life, Unith, but I don't think that's my destiny._ After a moment, I considered and decided to add. _And I'm not sure if I'm cut out for a life of battling thread and helping to breed up the next generation of dragons and riders._

_Well, maybe your life will take you down a different flight,_ Unith offered. _Best of luck._

The craziest thing is, as frightened as I was of dragons, I couldn't dislike one that I'd talked to. Maybe it was the ingenuous way they had of talking about anything, like hatred or scheming were human emotions that they couldn't comprehend. Maybe they don't.

As I thought of such things, Unith flew into the Hatching ground and landed in the vicinity of the largest egg, the one that Rosweth had confirmed would hold a golden queen, a daughter to carry on her were five bronze dragons, who had each landed well away from each other and all of the eggs, and slowly the candidates climbed off bronze scaly necks and approached the queen egg, forming a ragged circle around it. The bronzes lifted off and cleared the grounds.

As if that was a signal, as the wings of the bronzes faded, an egg cracked loudly. At first I thought it must be the queen egg, but there was no sign of a break on its surface, or any movement as you might expect if it had cracked on the underside, and I heard a further hubbub directly behind me. Somebody in the stands called out 'A bronze!', and there was a loud cheer that even some of the girls joined in on, and lots of the boy Candidates. I wanted to see what was going, but didn't want to turn my back on the queen egg lest it hatch while I wasn't paying attention. The gold hatchling might be angry with me if I wasn't watching her come out, mightn't she?

I wanted to edge around the circle of girls so that I could get a better look at the rest of what was going on, and maybe keep an eye on Maxx, Mari, Aless, and Mechall, but every other queen candidate was just standing still, so I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Izabella was nearly across the circle from me, with a good view, so I supposed that I could watch her reactions, and keep an eye on the few boys and fighting eggs that she couldn't see as well as I could.

It was at this point that I realized that I could actually see Mari out of the corner of my eye - she was standing nearly flat against one of the rock walls that seperated the grounds from the spectator stands, as if she could avoid the notice of a green dragon that way. There were about half a dozen girls and boys gathered around the nearest two small eggs.

Then there were the sounds of more eggs cracking, and Izabella gasped, and I risked a single look behind me to see if Maxx or Aless had impressed. No - I couldn't spot Maxx immediately, and Aless was near a brown dragon hatchling and a green, but neither of them seemed to be paying any attention to him. I looked straight ahead of me again, just in time to see that egg rock for the first time, riveting the attention of every girl who had been brought out to get a chance to impress her.

For a long time, nothing more happened to the biggest egg, and I wondered if the unhatched queen had just rocked back and forth to make sure that we were focused on her. And then I put that thought out of my mind, because the last thing I needed was for the golden dragon to notice that I was thinking about her, (as all the others seemed to,) and decide to let me impress her based on that. Then another rock, and then the egg seemed to roll itself halfway up a little hill of sand, and when it landed again there was a visible crack near the bottom curve of its shell.

The confounded thing didn't actually hatch properly until the noises from the rest of the Impression had started to fade away. A hole about as big as both of my hands fell out of the shell first, and the dragon's head squeezed through that space, knocking aside other bits of shell as it did. Then the entire dragon body was out, leaving more than half of the shell intact, and she was wobbling on uncertain limbs in my general direction. She was either headed my way or towards the girl on my right side, and I suddenly realized that that girl was Willa - Willa the lower caverns girl, who tradition insisted didn't have much of a shot. Willa who had already tried to impress a golden queen dragon once, and been left behind.

The dragon hatching turned her head towards Willa, considered her for a moment, and then made a snuffling sound and turned to me. I closed my eyes, I didn't want to look at her, not even if that would warn me that she was coming close enough that she might hurt me, which was very foolish, but still, I couldn't seem to force my eyelids back up. I ran quickly through a number of topics that concentrating on might dissuade the hatchling, but on the other hand, I thought that most of them might either intrigue or scare her - between, the red star, how much I just wanted to be back home at Ruatha.

And then Maxx popped into my head, and what it was like when he kissed me, and I couldn't seem to stop thinking about him either, no matter how hard I tried, and how worried I was about the dragon riders looking for him, and what it would be like if we actually could get espoused and have babies, and if our children would have unusual abilities like he and his friends did, and what if a dragon was listening in on my thoughts right now, but I just couldn't stop dwelling on it...

"His name is Dianth!" I'm pretty sure it wasn't the first time I'd heard an exclamation of that sort since the hatching started, but Dianth was the first one that I'd actually ended up paying attention to. They told us about that in the classes to prepare for being Candidates - a baby dragon instinctively knows his or her own name, and the Weyrlingmaster said that there wouldn't really be any doubt in our minds if Impression had happened or not, that this was the definitive test. After you impress, your dragon will tell you his or her name, in your mind, and **won't** share that detail directly with anybody else, the first day of his or her life. If a hatchling dragon tells you _My name is such-and-such-th_, then you're bonded for life.

And it's tradition that the impressed boy or girl will call out the name to the people watching in the stands - as a way of introducing their dragon friend to the world, and prove that they just Impressed. Somehow, hearing about Dianth made me feel calmer. No dragon had given me their name in my head since Unith, and he was definitely not a newly hatched dragon, he was an adult bronze, the Sire of this entire clutch, and certainly entitled to tell his name to somebody other than D'Nan if he wanted to.

I opened my eyes, saw golden newborn dragon hide close up, and almost panicked again - but the newly hatched queen was paying more attention to the girl on my left side, who was Samia, from a Herder's Hold in the hills above Southern Boll. Samia was standing very still too, but her eyes were trained on the golden hatchling and full of hope. I hoped that the queen would like her too, but the dragon was still looking back and forth uncertainly for several seconds, and I caught a glimpse of whirling yellow-green eyes.

And then with a sense of finality, that wedge-shaped golden head went forward to rub Samia's side. Samia exclaimed "Myerth!" with a tone of delighted wonder, and we all knew that Myerth had made her choice and impressed. I backed away from them with a sense of relief and looked out over the rest of the Hatching Grounds with a more critical eye.

A long stream of happy weyrling dragons and new riders was filing out the main access tunnel, and though I did recognize a few familiar boys from Ruatha in that queue, they weren't any of the faces that I was particularly looking for. There was Mari, still standing against the side of the Grounds where I'd last seen her, and Maxx was there with her now too, pretending to console her against her great disappointment. had to keep from laughing when I saw that. Aless was still wandering around the far side of the ground, taking a good look at a small egg that hadn't hatched yet, and didn't show any signs of it.

And - and there was Mechall, maybe twenty-five paces away from me, backing away carefully as the tiniest little blue dragon I'd ever seen advanced purposefully toward him. I took a look at some of the green hatchlings waiting their turn to leave the Grounds behind all of the other colors, and this blue was smaller than the biggest of them.

I wasn't sure how long Mechall had been backing away like this, looking exactly like he didn't want to impress a dragonling who obviously wanted to be his partner, but obviously I wasn't the only one who had noticed. Five older weyrbred boys who hadn't had any luck this Hatching were just lining up shoulders abreast a few paces behind Mechall. By the time he'd taken those few paces, Mechall found his way barred by a solid wall of candidates - not a word was said, but I gathered that their intention was to serve as a friendly reminder that he couldn't back away from the inevitable forever.

So Mechall smiled gamely and reached out towards the side of the blue dragon's neck, the way that the Weyrlingmaster had told us was okay. The blue spread his wet wings out halfway, and settled himself to the sand at Mechall's feet.

There was a kind of hush that settled over the Hatching Ground, and looking around, I realized that Mechall had been the last candidate to impress. After a few seconds, Izabella called out from behind me. "What's his name?"

Mechall didn't answer immediately, and Aless laughed. "Give us a name, M'chall!"

Maxx and Mari started to repeat the word, making it a chant. "Name, name, name, name..." Aless joined in, and Izabella and I, and some of the disappointed girls started to sing it out too.

"His name," Mechall sighed. "His name is Guerinth,"

And his shoulders sagged a little as he led little Guerinth towards the way out of the Hatching Grounds, to feed him for the first time.


	6. Chapter 6

At the Impression banquet, all of our families managed to get a table together, which un-nerved me a little, considering that we didn't really want them to know each other well enough to start asking questions about what was keeping our group of young people together. So that was Maxx and Izabella's foster parents, my parents, Aless' parents, and Mari's mother.

Even before the drinks were served, it was quite obvious which parts of the room were celebrating the impression of their sons and friends, and which groups had not had such good fortune. Our table was in reasonably high spirits without any direct connection to a new dragon rider, but Izabella turned to her mother. "Would - is it possible that after Mechall finishes feeding Guerinth, he could..."

"Yes, of course we'll celebrate with him," she said with a gentle smile. "Mechall doesn't have much family, so it's good that you and Maxx have been such good friends to him."

"The Weyr is his family now, and that's well enough done," Harper Evans commented. "That herdsman foster father of his refused to even take to a dragon to come see the Hatching. And I doubt that he'd be celebrating now if he were here, just comisserating that he'll have to find another cheap pair of hands."

There was an awkward silence following that remark, until the wineman came around to our table. The grown-ups got the good Benden stuff for themselves, and Whitman bought 'something suitable for the younger ones' - watered down grape juice with just a bit of a kick to it, but I didn't mind that. My father got to his feet and called the toast.

"To Mechall and Guerinth finding each other - and Maxx and Lizza apparently doing the same."

Mother plucked at his sleeve. "Parker, you can't do that! It's bad luck!"

Father seemed confused. "What's bad luck? Teasing my daughter a little? Comparing her newfound love to that of a dragon and rider?"

"No, that's in poor taste perhaps, but not against tradition, Master Parker," Evans put in. "But you're not supposed to toast the new rider under his old name."

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten that he'll have to take on a new styling," Father muttered, flushing slightly. I hadn't really thought about that, in connection with Mechall - all male dragon riders have those funny names that you spell with an apostrophe to mark the place where a full vowel sound has been taken out and you leave half of an 'e' in its place. Nobody's born with a name like that, though boys born in the Weyr are usually given names that can be converted into rider names easily, since the expectation is that most of them will be chosed by a dragon hatchling before they're too old to stand on the Hatching Ground.

"Okay, so what's his new name going to be?" Mari asked. "M'Chall?"

"That would be the most obvious choice, I suppose," Evans said. "But it's up to him to make the final decision. Some new riders change their names much more radically than that, not keeping the sound of the ending syllable."

"Then let's just drink to Maxx and Lizza, and leave toasting the new rider until he arrives," Maxx's mother said. I should probably be calling her by her given name in here, which is Dian.

So, they all drank to our good fortune, and there were some questions about just how long we'd been seeing each other in secret, and we blundered through, trying not to contradict each other, or open up a discrepancy between what I'd told the dragon riders last night and what our family knew about our recent lives in Ruatha.

New riders started entering the cavern, to the cheers of their families and friends, at the same time as the main course was being served out, and considerable confusion resulted, including a few dropped dishes. Mechall, (or whatever his name was now,) was quite surprised when we started cheering him and Maxx waved him over. After a moment of indecision, he came.

"Look, guys, it's nice of you to save me a seat, but I told some of the other riders that I'd dine with them. They're always eager to know their new wingmates-to-be, and don't have many who they can share the Impression banquet with."

There was a scattering of disappointed sighs from around the table, but Evans rose from his seat with considerable grace. "Well, Guerinth's rider, it is certainly important for you to show your fellow Weyrmen that you can be held to your word, and so I would ask only that you allow us to toast your good fortune before you continue to have dinner with the other riders. And for that, as I understand it, we will need to be told the proper name that you've taken as a member of the Weyr."

"Oh, of course, Journeyman," he said with a smile. "M'Kall, with a hard K sound."

"An excellent choice," Mom whispered. "Honey, you still have a claim on the honor, I believe."

"Right." Father picked up his glass of wine again. "To Guerinth and M'Kall!"

We all repeated the toast and drank to M'Kall and his little blue dragon, who was presumably sleeping off his first meal, as far as I could guess from my knowledge of Hatching traditions. M'Kall got a half glass of the good stuff when he asked, and pledged his duty to the Craftmasters present with a toast, and I think Evans was a little offended that M'Kall had left everybody else out. And then M'Kall left to enjoy the banquet with the other riders.

Maxx and I had started off sitting next to each other, but Father rearranged things somewhat so that Maxx would be between him and Mom, probably wanting to take his measure better without my being able to run interference. Somehow I wasn't too worried about Maxx's ability to fend for himself, but it was disappointing to be without him after all that we'd been through that day. So I turned to my new neighbor, who was Master Whitman, and figured that I might be able to accomplish something productive.

"Master Healer," I said, bobbing my head respectfully. "My duty to you."

"Good evening, Lizza," Whitman said with a little smile. "I'm sorry that you didn't have more luck out on the Grounds."

"I'm not... I don't think that I'd have been that much good as a queen dragon rider," I told him. "But - well, Maxx had an idea that he wanted to ask you about, and I'm guessing that he might not have had time to bring it up. I guess I'm too impatient to wait for Father to be through with him, before knowing what you'll say."

"Very well, say on. You know that I'll do what I can for you, once I know what it is."

Those words managed to bring a smile to my face. "Well, I've been trying to find a suitable vocation for myself, and blocked on all the most obvious paths. I thought that the Healercraft was blocked to me long ago, because I always faint when I get close to blood. But Maxx suggested that that might not be such an obstacle, especially if I choose a subspecialty of a Healer's assistant, and I think that I could live with that."

"Yes, I think that you might make a good medical aide, at that," Whitman said, softly. "So, for the record, what exactly are you asking of me? An opinion, a favor?"

"A favor, I suppose, if that's what it will take for you to take me on as an apprentice." There, I'd said it as plainly as I could manage.

"Not ordinarily, but I suppose that it might take a favor under the current circumstances, and still what I can do might not be all that you're hoping for. You see, Lizza, I won't have any apprentices at all within the sevenday, possibly sooner."

"What? Why?" The words left my mouth in nearly a shout.

"Not quite so loud, my dear. It's nothing too shocking - the Halls at Fort are simply calling in the apprentices."

I thought about that for a moment, trying to absorb it. The Harpercraft Hall and Healercraft Hall shared facilities across from Fort Hold. "So... so Maxx, and Aless - they're going to the Halls?"

"Yes. It was only on account of the crowding in the Halls that Masters like me were granted so much freedom to choose our own apprentices and train them up ourselves."

"And the Halls aren't as crowded as they used to be? Why not?"

"Mostly because apprentices have walked the tables and become journeymen, and journeymen have been sent out from the Halls on assignment. I believe a certain number of apprentices have run away from the Halls as well, and there were at least a dozen boys Searched from the Halls who impressed dragon hatchlings tonight, though of course the Masterhealer couldn't have known that when he sent me word that my apprentices would be called in."

"Okay, I understand the situation, I think," I said. "What does it mean for me, that you won't be able to help me?" I suddenly realized that was unlikely, since Whitman had said that he'd do me a favor.

"I will do what I can. Tomorrow morning, once we are back at Ruatha, you will report to my office as early as you can, and I will take you on then for evaluation. If I have not found any reason to disqualify you by the time Maxx and the others leave for the Halls, then you will go with them."

I definitely wanted to be going, if Maxx would be going to the Healer Hall. But... "I spoke to Evans about becoming a Harper apprentice once, and he suggested that I might not find it - pleasant to be studying at the Harper Hall, as a girl. If the Healer Hall is the same facility, then..."

"Oh, yes. Well, I would not be so worried, among the Healers, though there is some social intermixing, and you might need to remain strong in the face of some minor harrassment. I suspect that if it is known that you and Maxx are mutually enamoured, and if he is willing to confront anybody who does not treat you with respect, that will help."

"You mean, he'd have to duel to defend my honor?"

"No, I didn't mean that. The Craft halls take a dim view of blood duels, and it's unlikely he'd even have to wrestle to make his point." I shuddered, remembering that Kylo was a champion wrestler in Ruatha's league. Just - a little harmless intimidation, to make it clear that it wouldn't be a good idea to cross him."

"Yeah, come to think of it, I think that he could manage that," I said.

"Hello, hello?" Izabella rose to her feet down near the other end of the table, pulling Aless up with her. I hadn't even realized that the two of them had been seated next to each other - or was that something that had changed during the meal as well? "Aless has a bit of an announcement to make. Go ahead, honey."

"Yes, umm, well..." Aless cleared his throat, looked down towards his boots, and then over at Izabella, who nodded a bit curtly at him, though the big smile plastered onto her face didn't change. "Since Maxx and Lizza have, er, gone public as it were, the two of us thought that perhaps we could. Well, I've asked Izabella if she would consider espousing me, once I become a Harper Journeyman, and she has agreed to entertain my suit. You might want to speak your piece at this point, obviously, Journeyman Evans, but..."

There was a moment of stunned silence from nearly everybody, and then Evans laughed. "Yesterday we find out that we might be gaining another daughter, and now a new son. Of course, I couldn't be more pleased, Aless. It stands to common sense that nothing is settled, since you're both so young, but I don't think that either of us have any objections, do we, dear?"

Dian still seemed a bit overwhelmed, but one thought obviously came through her head loud and clear. "You're both being... careful, right, kids? I don't want to become a grandmother _too_ soon. And, well, I suppose that goes for you too, Lizza, and Maxx. I don't mean to have a different standard when..."

"Yes, Mother, very careful," Izabella insisted, cutting off the rest of Dian's ramble. "You don't need to worry about me going in the family way anytime soon."

"Well, that's good," Aless' mother agreed. "It sounds like it's good and surprising news all around tonight. Well, except for - Mari, do you have something to share with us all?"

Mari blinked, and looked a little bit like a beast faced with the butcher. "Me? No, not a thing in the world. Nothin' going on with me at all. I didn't become a green rider tonight, but then, I didn't think I would, so it's back to the Klah lounge tomorrow, same old, same old."

#

"Mari, for a second, I thought that you were about to tell everybody that you were hoping to be M'Kall's girlfriend," I told her.

"First egg!" Mari exclaimed. "Do you know me at all? I mean, even if there was some possibility of a connection between the two of us, now that he's become a rider? Not any sliver of a chance."

"Yes, I understand that," I agreed. Obviously, the fact that Mari's lost father had come up with a plan to redeem himself didn't wipe out her issues at a stroke - maybe things would be better once D'Luc had actually recanted and made his retribution. I wondered if Mari was more concerned about the actual possibility of M'Kall spurning her, or what people at Ruatha would think.

"It would have been convenient, to have somebody declare an alliance with M'Kall," Maxx pointed out. "Not Lizza, since she's been spoken for already. Somebody who could make regular visits up to the Weyr and exchange news."

"Well, why didn't Izabella declare for M'Kall then, instead of horning in on Aless?" Mari complained.

The three of us had taken over the family room in the Evans quarters, back in Ruatha, and we didn't have that long before the grown-ups came back and put Maxx to bed - and Izabella, assuming that she showed up by then. Maxx wanted to be able to speak openly with the remaining members of our conspiracy, to catch up with some recent developments, and I definitely thought that was a good idea.

"You could have told everybody about finding your father, Mari," Maxx suggested after an awkward moment.

"Well, yes, I could, if I thought that Mother was ready to hear about it!" Mari flared, and went off to sulk in an armchair.

Aless and Izabella came in a few minutes later, all giggling and her touching his arm lightly with the tips of her fingers, but as soon as they got inside and caught Maxx's glare, Aless hopped away from Izabella, and she dropped her hand, but glared back at her brother.

"Okay, you've heard a little about why Lizza and I felt inspired to confess our love publicly," Maxx said. "Care to let me in on your own motives?"

"So you don't believe that our love is true?" Izabella shot back frostily.

"I don't believe that there isn't more to the story than you told our parents," Maxx said. "Just as with Lizza and I. I can't even tell if you'd met Aless before we went up to the Weyr."

"There was the Plateau hold gather," Mari put in. "You weren' with us that day, Maxx, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen."

"And we've seen each other, and spoken, around the hold even before then," Aless said. "Not a very intimate acquaintanceship, I must admit, but it was a starting point. And she suggested going to breakfast after the gather, which I wasn't able to make the next day, but we did end up getting together before the sevenday was out."

"Yes, we did." Izabella took a deep breath. "And I asked Aless to meet me several times a day once we went up to the Weyr, because I felt lonely being up there, and spending time with him made me feel better."

"And kissing made both of you feel even better?" Mari asked.

"Maybe," Izabella muttered. "Anyway, after the two of you did your big distraction announcement and it seemed to work, I started to think - why not? Whatever these dragonmen hunters think that their strangers are, I'm not sure that they expect us to be pledging promises like any other ordinary young people. It would certainly seem unlikely, if we're the horrible Thread-people that they want to thing that we are, that ordinary people like Lizza or Aless would want to be espousing us."

"Well, it wasn't for those reasons that Lizza first said that I was her gentleman friend," Maxx said. "But - well, I guess I can understand and appreciate that, and I hope that it works out well for both of you."

"You might have to be lovers from far away, though," I said, speaking for the first time since Izabella and Aless had entered, since Maxx had been eager enough to carry his own side of the conversation. "He's to be sent to the Harper Hall in less than a seven-day."

"I am?" Aless squeaked.

"Try to be surprised when your Masters tell you tomorrow," I said. "Or whenever, it's supposed to be kind of a secret." I turned to Maxx. "You're to be going as well, to study with the Healer masters. And - if everything goes well, I'll be going with you."

Maxx had been looking a bit nervous about leaving, but now a broad grin broke out on his face. "You spoke with Master Whitman? When?"

"Just before Izabella and Aless made their big announcement, while my Mother and Father were surrounding you, darling," I told him. "Did you acquit yourself with distinction?"

"Well enough, I think."

I was about to ask him for more details, but Evans and Dian came back just then, offered a few cream cakes and iced klah all around, and soon enough Maxx and Izabella were sent off to bed, and Mari, Aless, and I were politely shown to the corridor. After a moment, Mari let out a loud huff and hurried off towards the nearest stairs.

"What's wrong with her tonight?" Aless asked. "Jealousy that there's nobody left for her to vow her love to?"

"Except for M'Kall, apparently, and that offends her sense of pride," I said. "But come on. Before we too must part for the night, there's one thing I have to ask you."

"Really?" Aless raised his eyebrows and led the way down the corridor, the other way than Mari had disappeared. "And what could that possibly be?"

"When you kiss Izabella... do you see anything really strange? Like, unexplainable or unconventional?"

Aless looked towards me, gradually slowing to a stop, and I realized that he looked disappointed. "No, I haven't seen or heard anything, but the first time, she asked me that too."

I considered that. "How soon after we got to the Weyr was that?"

"Actually, it was the day before." My eyes went wide. Okay, so what had Izabella seen when she kissed Aless for the first time? That would have been before I asked her about seeing anything in 'between.'

And suddenly I felt flushed with cold. This trip, I hadn't been on the same dragon with Maxx, or Izabella, but Dian and Mom had been on the same dragon as Izabella, and Journeyman Evan with his foster son. Had they seen anything unusual on the trip?

"Come on, Lizza, I know that look," Aless said. "Tell me what you're scared about."

"Okay," I said. "I'll tell you everything, but not here. Let's see if my parents are home."

They were. So were Aless', and it was too late then to slip off to the fireheights. I told him that we'd talk in the morning before I reported to his father's office.

#

The next morning, I went up to the Lounge bakeries and took one of the trays of little bubbly pies, hot out of the oven. When I showed up at the Whitman's quarters, I was gratefully let in by Master Whitman's spouse, Golira. Whitman, Aless, and Maxx were already sitting at the breakfast table.

"Maxx!" I exclaimed, really taken by surprise. "What are you doing here? You don't usually drop by your Master's room before the day starts... do you?"

"Well, no," Maxx said, coming over to hug me good morning. "Sometimes he does ask me over to get an early start, especially if for some reason he wants to teach me without being distracted by anybody else dropping by the obvious. But this time... well, as crazy as it sounds, I had a dream of you being here, so I came as soon as I could."

"That doesn't sound crazy, it's sweet," I told him, and climbed up onto the tips of my feet to kiss his cheek. "But, well, not meaning to neglect you, but there's something that my old friend and I need to discuss. Hopefully it shouldn't take long."

"I'm not sure it's proper for either of you to be taking time in private, Lizza," Golira teased. "Whatever would the Evans children think?"

"Izabella might throw a scene if she thought that she could get away with it, but I don't plan on giving her the chance when I tell her," Maxx said. "I trust Lizza, and I know that we can all trust Aless."

"Just let me get a pie first," Aless said. "I think that you'll be doing most of the talking, so I can listen and eat at the same time."

So I went with Aless into his room, and told him everything 'strange' that I could think about to do with Maxx, except for the healing, which we'd already covered well enough - the memories about Izabella and Lizza that I got when he touched me up on the fireheights and tried to make me forget, the bright light in 'between.' And then I went into some detail about what I'd experienced with that first kiss with Maxx, in front of the riders, the sense of the Weyr in darkness, and all of the dragons watching us. "So what do you think?" I asked him when that was done.

"I... I think that you're really lucky, to share this much with Maxx," Aless said. "Maybe that's because of how he saved your life, like it formed a bond between your lives that he couldn't even break when he was trying to."

"Okay," I said, shaking my head. "And what else do you think?"

"Well... I'm wondering if the riders are actually jealous of our not-so-human friends - because they have gifts that actually bring them closer to the dragons than most humans can hope to be."

I must have let out some kind of surprised sound, though I can't really remember what it was like. Aless smiled and continued his speech. "Think about it. The dragons have mental powers, the ability to speak to each other, and to their riders, sometimes other peoples, but most riders don't, not on their own without a dragon to help. Father said that Moreta could sense what people were feeling even before she was taken on Search, but that's not so much - not compared to what Maxx can do, or Izabella. Most riders couldn't even do that much. Maybe 'strangers' would make the best dragon riders of all. Izabella and Maxx didn't impress, but they were trying so very hard not to, it must have worked for them."

"And Mechall got Guerinth, as hard as he was trying not to," I muttered, struck by it. "What must that little dragon have seen in him? Is he in danger? What if D'Nan and D'Peerce notice that he has a closer rapport with his dragon than the other Weyrlings?"

"I don't know," Aless admitted. "We probably can't do anything to help him out, though. So, you're to try your luck as my father's new apprentice?"

"Yes," I said, sighing. Somehow I'd expected Aless to have something else to say about what I'd been through with Maxx, aside from expressing a little friendly envy and talking about how the dragons might fit into the situation. But I wasn't sure what, so I left that behind. "What time do you need to meet the old Harper today?"

"Umm, not for an hour yet, I think," Aless said. "I'll probably ask if I can watch the start of your lesson, if you don't mind."

I wasn't sure if I minded or not. "Okay, whatever."

But when we got back to the Healer's family room, Whitman was in no great hurry to start instructing me in any obvious way, though he did ask a lot of questions about my background, my family, and so on. "You don't have a sister, do you?" he inquired at one point.

I shook my head. "No."

"I remember seeing you and Mari running around the hallways with a slightly taller girl who looked like you, except her hair was curlier," Golira said.

I nodded, slightly deflated. "That would have been my cousin on my mother's side, Rosana. She was fostered here at Ruatha for several years. She was two turns older than I am."

"Was?" Whitman asked quietly.

"When she went back to Southern Boll, she made friends with - there are cotholder kids near the main hold who make their own brews of forest leaves and roots - not the sort of thing that a proper Healer would approve of, at least not for people who aren't sick. And they stick themselves with needlethorns."

Golira shuddered, and Whitman shook his head sadly. It was oddly funny that Maxx and Aless both mimicked the Healer's mannerism a few seconds later, as if they were waiting to see exactly how he reacted. "There was an apprentice who was shunned by the Harpers for trying something like that, right here at Ruatha," Aless put in. "Though he didn't have needlethorn, so he drank the stuff."

"There will always be a few who will attempt to drug their senses with whatever is available," Whitman muttered. "I assume it didn't work out well for Rosana?"

"Well, no." I took a deep breath. "The Boll healer said that she must have used a tainted thorn and caught an infection in her blood. She hung on for several months, fighting hard - and she stopped taking the junk, though that was hard. But when the winter came, there was a bad cough going around the Hold infirmary, and she couldn't fight them both."

"I'm sorry, Lizza." Whitman cleared his throat. "Have your parents taught you anything in the way of first aid, as part of working in the Klah lounge?"

"What's the first aid?" I asked him, hoping that I didn't sound ignorant.

"I'm sorry, perhaps that phrase has become a craft secret," Whitman chuckled without any real show of humor. "We can only hope that the details don't follow it. I'm speaking of basic knowledge on how to quickly deal with wounds or sickness - the sort of things you should do right away, before you can call a Healer if he doesn't happen to be luckily standing right there at the right moment."

"Oh, I think I know what you mean," I said, smiling in relief. "Well, there's - you mean like what I would to do help Father if he burned his fingers on the stovetop?" Whitman nodded silently, so I told him about how I'd dress the burned skin with a small amount of butter and wrap the fingers tightly. The Healer quizzed me gently about how I'd react to other imaginary emergencies at my old day's work, including broken bones, skinned knees, choking on a honey cake, and somebody collapsing to the ground without any obvious sign of what was wrong.

"That's a very good beginning, Lizza, and a better handle on first aid than I expected that you might have," Whitman told me once I was done. "Just one thing more, and I'll stress at this point that I'm only interested in your knowledge of the theory; I won't be asking you to put it into practice anytime soon - what should be done if somebody gets cut with a knife, on the finger, and is losing blood?"

I had to catch my breath, not only because I couldn't help but put myself in that situation as an onlooker wanting to help, and picture the blood, but because it was uncomfortably close to what had actually happened to me in the Klah Lounge, when Maxx had saved my life. I had to wonder just how much Whitman knew about what had happened that day, and if he'd heard D'Peerce's guesses about how badly I'd been injured.

"That - that depends on how badly the cut site is bleeding," I managed to stammer out. "If the blood is spurting or flowing quickly, then - then stopping the loss of blood is the most important priority. Otherwise, clean the wound with pure water, and no sweetsand, and then wrap the finger in a fresh bandage."

"And how would you stop the loss of blood, if required?"

I tried to rack my brain. "I... I don't remember, or maybe I never listened. I'm sorry, Master."

"Very well," Mister Whitman stood up. "Come into my workroom, Lizza." I followed him into the inner room, which had a table with some drawers built underneath it, and storage cubbies dug into the wall. "The preliminary apprenticeship texts are in the hides there." He jabbed a finger at one of the lower cubbies. "You will begin today with the two covering the treatment of bleeding, stab wounds and cuts. I repeat, you will not be tested on any of this in practicum yet, but I expect you to memorize the information and be able to repeat it perfectly by rote."

He sounded at least as stern as my Father ever has, so I assumed that the Healer Master meant business. I hurried over to the rolled up hides in the cubbies, and quickly found two that seemed to relate. They weren't short little messages either, but long scrolled texts. "Memorize all of these - sir? Today?"

Whitman considered the question fairly. "Read as much as you can, Lizza, and when I am finished with my own duties you can tell me how far you were able to get."

I considered that for a moment. Since he'd said that he'd be expecting me to memorize rote-perfect, then as far as I said I'd be able to read, he'd be testing me for recall on that much this evening. I'd have to be sure that I didn't read for speed, but understood and remembered what I wrote - but he'd also be displeased if the amount of progress that I said I made was less than what he'd expect a starting apprentice to be capable of. But I wasn't worried - I read well and was blessed with a good memory, and didn't expect the subject matter to phaze me for long. "Yes, sir. Should I work in here?"

"Please do, you can use my chair at the desk, that's fine. Maxx, attend me. We have the overnight patients in the infirmary to check in on!" And he swept out of the room.

I looked around, and edged close to the door, catching just one glimpse of Maxx, waving encouragingly to me as he followed Whitman out into the Hold corridor. Then Golira stepped up to the workroom doorway.

"Just let me know if you need anything, dearie," she said with a sweet smile. So I sat down, found the start of the scroll relating to 'the cleaning of wounds from a cutting edge' and began to study it.

#

I worked hard through the morning, only asking Golira for one thing - a fresh mug of klah, when I was starting to feel like my eyes couldn't keep reading any longer. I took a break once to use the water closet, and was nearly through the cutting edge when she asked me if I was ready to stop for lunch.

"I... I could eat something, yes," I agreed. stretching and realizing that my insides were indeed churning in hunger for something. "Do you have anything to offer..." I stepped towards the doorway, saw that some of the bubbly pies that I'd brought over were still sitting on the table, and felt a less pleasant churn. "Not something sweet, for preference."

Golira chuckled softly, and then there was a knock at the hallway door, so she crossed over quickly and opened it. Maxx's face beamed at me as soon as our eyes met. "And what brings you here, Apprentice Maxx?" Golira said with a soft smile of her own.

"I was hoping to take Lizza down to the Lower caverns and get her a bite, before we both have to get back to duty," Maxx said. "The Master released me from my duties for the nooning."

Golira considered this, and then stepped away from the door, holding it wide open for me. "Go ahead, and have a good time. But I expect you back at the hides by the time the sand runs out, Apprentice Lizza." She took a large hourglass from the side table and flipped it over meaningfully.

"Oh," I said, and turned to Maxx. "We'll have to be careful." Keeping an eye on the time of day can be difficult when you're moving about the hold - you can't really carry around an hourglass, and unless you know that one's been set at a particular time...

"Let me take care of that," Maxx said, reaching out for my hand and pecking me on the cheek. As we headed down the hallway towards the stairs, a heavy beat started from Ruatha's drumheights, and Maxx smiled to me. "That's the message that our good master said that he'd be sending off to the Healer Hall, to ask for advice regarding a difficult abdominal infection. It always takes five sixths of an hour for the relay to take a drum message to Fort, and the Harper Hall message to come back here. Then we'll know to head back up the stairs."

"Ooh, clever boy." On the stairs landing, I brought my hands to the back of Maxx's neck and pulled his lips down towards mine for a kiss, loving the warm and prickly feeling of having found somebody so special, who cherished me just as much as I adored him.

Our nooning wasn't anything special - the Ruatha lower caverns were serving roast seaside wherry and grain gruel. I don't really mind the 'fishy taste' of seaside bird as long as the texture of the meat isn't striny, and mine was okay. More than that, it was a chance to talk to Maxx without anybody else butting into the conversation, and I learned a lot more about his childhood since he and Izabella were adopted by Evans and Dian.

Actually, we had a few people butting into the conversation, because word had spread about how we'd declared our mutual affections while up at the Weyr, so there were a few people coming by to wish us good luck, or in Kylo's case, try to cause trouble. Nobody mentioned my studying with Healer Master Whitman, so I had to assume that little detail hadn't hit the rumor mill. I wasn't sure if I hoped that I'd be packed off to the Hall at Fort Hold before most people found out. More than anything, I hoped that I impressed Whitman enough that he'd allow me to go at all.

Maxx and I had just agreed to slip off and find some deserted spot to re-affirm our romantic affections when the drums sounded again, and I groaned. "That was the response from the Healer Hall, wasn't it?"

"Not really a response, but a confirmation, yes," Maxx agreed. "Can't count on how long it'll take for them to actually draft a reply, but I'd better get you back to the studying, and see what else Whitman needs from me. He has open hours this afternoon, for any Ruathan Holders to come speak to him about minor medical concerns that have been on their minds."

"Okay," I said, taking Maxx's hand and steering us towards the nearest stairwell. "Did he start you off studying scrolls like this too?"

"Umm - no, actually, but I started getting the oral drill from Journeyman Marglin."

"What happened to him? He's not working for Whitman anymore, is he?" Maxx was silent as we started to climb the stairs. "Was he transferred to some other Hold?"

"This would seem to be a day for describing the sad ends of those who were close to us," Maxx mumbled, and my heart sank, but I didn't stop him from speaking on. "Marglin and Prina were going to be espoused two summers ago, but there was an old admirer of Prina's, and he kept challenging Marglin to a blood duel for her heart. Marglin could refuse the challenge without any loss of honor, since Prina had chosen him - and like riders, crafters of rank are somewhat exempt from the rules about dueling. But this other man - he wouldn't let his anger go, and ended up sneaking up behind Marglin and stabbing him between the ribs with a dueling knife. He was shunned and stripped of his name by Lord Jerood, but..." Maxx leaned against the stone wall and looked up and down the flight of stairs, before beckoning me to come closer.

He spoke in a whisper. "I wanted to help him, the way I helped you - I knew enough of my abilities by then. But Whitman and others had seen how bad the wound was before I got near, and I couldn't bring myself to expose the secret so easily. I didn't understand about the riders, but I knew that people might fear me if they knew how different I was. And before I could conquer that fear - Marglin slipped away and the question was moot. I - I don't know if I'd have helped him, if I had enough time to conquer my nerves, or..."

"It was a difficult situation," I said, trying awkwardly to pull Maxx into my arms. "You've been given a heavier burden to carry than most people, Maxx. I'll do what I can to help shoulder that load for you, but I don't know all of the answers either."

"I know." Max let out a long sigh, and then backed away just enough to stare lovingly into my eyes. "It does help, just knowing that you're on my side." He reached out to brush a lock of my hair with his fingers, and I wondered if he was going to tuck it back behind my ear, but he didn't, just sort of stroked it, which was good too.

I nodded at him, and we resumed climbing the stairs. "I - I can't believe that I tried to make you forget all about me," Maxx admitted softly.

"Well, you're an idiot, honey," I told him. "What about tonight? Whitman will let us off duty by dinner, won't he?"

"I expect so," Maxx said. "What do you most want to do together?"

"Anything at all on all Pern?" I teased him. "My dreams can get a little impractical sometimes."

He considered that. "Nothing too outrageous, but give me some room to surpass your expectations."

I grinned at the thought. "A picnic outside the Hold somewhere, maybe down at the bottom of the valley near the ford."

"On runner-beasts or our own feet? Getting down there?"

"It's hardly far enough to..." I started, then cut myself off, thinking about the possibilities. "Surprise me."

"I'll do my best, my darling, my dear." We had to hurry through the corridors to Whitman's quarters when we'd climbed the floors to the right level, but Maxx kissed me outside the door, and then hurried back down to meet the Healer.

And I slipped inside, waved a silent greeting to Golira, and settled back to studying the skin about cuts.


	7. Chapter 7

When Master Whitman arrived home at the end of his day, I was able to tell him that I'd finished studying the first hide worth of information about how to treat wounds from a knife or other cutting instrument, and the first section of another. He quizzed me for a few minutes, and I stammered and had to keep a close hold of my wits to answer sensibly, because I was so unnerved by the topic I had spent all day learning about, but aside from that I thought I was doing well. Then he asked, "What stitch should a Healer use to repair a dueling knife wound that proceeds horizontally through the collarbone area?"

I was speechless for too many seconds. "That wasn't in there! There was nothing about the specifics of stitching or the different kinds - only general references to it."

"No?" Whitman asked, his own confidence derailed. "It's been a while since I've been through these texts in detail, but I thought..." He reached out to take the second hide, which I'd left on the table in front of me when he entered, rolling it up neatly, and there was a puzzled look on the Master's face for a moment, and then he smiled slightly, and nodded. "I see the confusion. I'd meant for you to proceed on to a hide detailing stitching in the second place, but this is detailing after-care."

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't apologize, Lizza - it's either my fault for not being more specific, or somebody who didn't leave my hides in order." Whitman shot Maxx a look, and Maxx didn't make eye contact with him. "Very well, you've made a good beginning, but be back here nice and early tomorrow. I'll be asking you both to accompany me down to the infirmary at the field cot. It seems that I won't have much time to justify getting you into the Hall, Lizza."

I thought back to what he'd told me about the timeline for apprentices being sent back to the Healer Hall. "I thought that we'd have most of a seven-day."

"I said that it might be up to a seven-day before the apprentices from Ruatha travel to the Hall," Whitman said. "The schedule has been set - it'll be immediately after next rest-day." I let out a little sigh of relief. There were still three days left before rest-day. "However, MasterHealer Weeler has asked me to drum up a list of apprentices, so that his journeymen can plan out the dormitories. I will need to know for sure if I'll be sending you along before I send that message, Lizza - one male apprentice more or less might go un-noticed, but the girl's quarters are smaller and spaces go quickly."

"Right," Maxx said. "But you can't go ahead and include Lizza yet?"

"I'm afraid not, Maxx," the Master told him. "By tomorrow night, I'll have taken her measure I think, and will be able to report in good conscience. Don't rush me before that."

"Thank you, Master," I told him, and he raised an eyebrow. "For giving me this chance to prove myself. I won't let you down."

"I hope not." He smiled. "Now, that'll be all, and I'm sure that the two of you made some evening plans when you crept away for your nooning together. Enjoy the time together, my young lovers."

Maxx smiled, and I waved before we turned around and made our exit. "So, is it to the beastmaster's hold first?" I teased Maxx once we were into the Hold hallways.

"No, I'm afraid that was a false clue," he said. "Though I do want to have a runnerback trip with you before we leave - maybe on rest-day. But for tonight - you said to surprise you, so we're not going to wander out the front door of the Hold for our picnic either. Come along."

He led me first to his foster parent's quarters, where we were both somewhat laden down with picnic supplies, and then over to a familiar stairway. By the time he started upward, I had figured out his surprise, and let out a giggle.

"I should have blindfolded you," Maxx muttered ruefully.

"Even blindfolded, I could tell if I were being led up stairs," I pointed out. "And after the first few flights, there isn't really anywhere that we could be going other than the fire-heights. Which, after all, was the first place that we really talked."

"True," Maxx admitted. "Not that that's really a big milestone to be celebrating, considering how I spoke to you. But it was the most romantic spot I could think of - seeing the entire valley from the heights. And, after all, we do have something to celebrate - aside from Master Whitman accepting you provisionally for another day."

"Wait, what's that?"

"Well - we got into the dragon's weyr and back out without attracting any more suspicion, really. There were times when I was seriously thinking that the riders wouldn't let us leave after the Impression was done."

I thought about that. "Yeah, it's worked out well so far. And the weird thing was - well, when we first talked that time, you were so worried about the dragons finding out my secrets. And yes, dragons spoke to me at the Weyr, they could even tell my feelings sometimes when I didn't want them to know - but they were all friendly. I have to say, even if some of the dragon-riders are looking for thread-men, their dragons don't seem to be too concerned about that. They'll do what their riders ask them to, I guess, but they're not scared of you, like the riders are."

"I'm not sure how comforted I am by that," Maxx said, rounding another turn in the stairs. "But it's better than it could be, I guess."

We were silent most of the way up to the heights, and then Maxx broke the silence. "I'm a little worried about Izabella being alone here at Ruatha, after we're gone. Mechall is staying at the Weyr now, taking care of Guerinth, and her newly beloved Aless is going to be going to the Hall at the same time as we are."

"Assuming that Whitman lets me go, yeah," I said. "It'd be good if Mari and Izabella felt more comfortable with each other, so that they can be each other's supporter here at the Hold. But I'm not sure how to arrange that. Mari can get stubborn when you try to push her into anything."

"I'm not sure that anybody is Izabella's match when it comes to stubbornness," Maxx said. Then we were stepping out onto the heights, and my breath caught as the cool wind blew over the valley and sent my hair out in a stream off to the side.

Maxx smiled as he spread out the thick sheets over the bare rock, for the two of us to sit on, and got out the bottle of grape juice, and meat rolls, and some of my father's best homestyle bread, and a bowl of mixed greens. "So - is it okay if I ask you a personal question?" I asked him as I sat down, giggling.

"After what we've been through, I'm not sure that I see any problem with 'personal', Lizza," Maxx said.

"Okay. How much do you understand about - well, when you were very young? Before you were fostered by your parents?"

"Oh." Maxx was quiet for a while, but just as I was about to say that he didn't need to tell me, he started to. "For a long time, I was in some kind of a chair. I don't remember how I got there, or what was before that, but the chair was in a dark place, and it was tossed back and forth like the furniture in a really bad earthshake, except this kept happening on and on and on. I was chained or fastened into the chair somehow, which probably saved my life from the shaking. And - this sounds strange, but the chair was able to feed me and give me water by itself, I don't really remember how."

"Okay, I think I understand, almost as well as you do," I said. "Go on."

"There were another boy and a girl in chairs spread around the dark place - Izabella and Mechall. After a really bad series of shakes, everything stopped, and I was nearly on my back, with my chair pointed upward at an angle. Mechall was pointed down, and he fell out of his chair, and I rushed over to help him. He was hurt - bleeding from two bad cuts in his face, and he had broken bones - two ribs, one arm, one leg. But I could heal him, without even thinking about it.

"A doorway out of the dark place opened, and all three of us hurried out, into a place that was cooler and more open. I think that it was a grassy hilltop, and we all loved exploring so much that we split up, but Izabella found me again. We knew that Mechall was around somewhere - none of us had chosen names yet, but we knew each other. Izabella tried to go out and find Mechall and bring him back to me, but he'd always back off and hide somewhere that she couldn't find him.

"So we walked downhill for a long time, with Mechall following us, and close to the bottom of the valley he climbed out onto a rock and looked at us. Izabella was annoyed at him for running away from her, so it was up to me, and I went up to him and offered him my hand, and he climbed down and came back with me.

"As the dawn was just starting to color the sky to the east, the three of us were walking down the main road between Nabol and Ruatha. A wagon came down the road, with glows out to light the way, and Izabella and I decided to wait and see what it was. Izabella held her hand out for Mechall, but he was scared, and ran off. So that night, we met Evans and Dian - and Mechall didn't. When he was found by a herder's apprentice, a day and a half later, he was nearly starving."

"Wow," I muttered, trying to absorb all that Maxx had told me in that simple story. "And this was - what, twelve turns ago? Did you look like ordinary children of five?"

"Yes, and yes," Maxx agreed. "How much did D'Peerce tell you about the Riders' side of that story?"

"Not too much," I admitted. "A patrol flight found a cracked egg, steel and white glass, in the highlands beyond Ruatha. They think that it was some kind of ship that people could have used to sail between the stars of the sky."

"Okay, that makes sense," Max said. "It would explain the shaking, I suppose, though I have no ideas what kind of tides and weathers could account for the shaking that I felt."

"Are you sure that it was only the three of you in the egg, Maxx?" I pressed, slicing another piece of bread carefully. "I mean - you were very young, and it was such a long time ago. I don't remember much that clearly from when I was only five turns old."

"I'm not sure," Maxx agreed. "Between the three of us, we've been over this so much that it sounds so pat and clear, but maybe I'm just remembering the retellings. Why do you ask?"

"Well, D'Peerce said that the riders have been tracking a thread-man who's used his powers to kill with a touch, leaving a handprint like the one that you left when you healed me. Have - have you ever hurt anybody with your powers like that, Maxx? Any of you?"

"I haven't," Maxx said, "and I'm sure that Izabella hasn't. Mechall might have lashed out with his abilities once or twice - he hasn't had an easy childhood compared to any of us, and I don't blame him for losing his temper. But still, I'm quite sure that he hasn't killed a man. I'd have known it."

"Okay, I believe you," I said. "But you see what that implies, don't you?"

"That there might be another traveller, a star-sailor, who either came from our egg - or there might be another, one that the riders didn't find out about," Maxx muttered.

"Oh - another landing. I didn't even think of that one," I said. "Okay, let's see. Should we change topics to something safer?"

Maxx considered the question. "I think that you might have one more question, and if so, we should probably have it."

"Well - how did you find Mechall again? Okay?"

Maxx chuckled. "That's properly Izabella's story to tell, so I won't infringe on her perogatives. Very generally, though - Mechall and a bunch of other herder's boys came to the hold for Harper teaching, and she came up to him when he was sitting along at lunch. Later that day she brought him to meet me again."

I smiled at the thought of that meeting. "I look forward to hearing Izabella's version."

"Yeah, you'll like it."

We talked more as we finished the picnic and watched the sun set on the other side of the river - a lot of questions about each other's past. I asked Maxx about how he'd learned that he could heal, and how he'd gotten an apprenticeship with Master Whitman, and Maxx wanted to know about how I'd first met Mari and Aless and become such good friends with them. Then, when the direct light of day had gone entirely, Maxx looked around at the sky, as if suddenly worried about something.

"We don't have that long," he whispered. "We can't stay up here after dark closes in."

"Well, no, of course not," I said, shaking my head. "But the twilight lasts at least an hour, at this time of year."

"That's good to know, but still, I think that we should seize the chance." And Max bent over to kiss me, one of those kisses that felt like a stream of energizing fire bathing my whole body.

"Ohh," I breathed when I got the chance, the opporunities suddenly hitting me. Nobody else was likely to be coming up here to the heights this late, and so the two of us had a kind of privacy that we hadn't exactly been able to find ever since the first time we'd kissed in the Weyr lower caverns. It was a chance to go beyond kissing, maybe a lot further. If I was ready for 'a lot further.'

While I was thinking of all this, Maxx had started to lay a trail of kisses around the edge of my ear and across my neck. Then he backed away a little, stretched out his hand so that his fingers were resting near the top of my shirt, and asked me a silent question with his eyes.

Now, instead of an everyday tunic, I'd gotten a bit dressed up that morning for my meeting with Master Whitman, so I was wearing a top that buttoned down the front. I took a deep breath and nodded my head just a little, and Max started to work the buttons desperately, like he wouldn't be able to breathe until they were all free. I decided that he didn't need to rush so much, so I pulled him down towards me for another kiss. As our lips met, Maxx's hand touched my chest, which was still mostly covered up, and it was like a triangle of light and heat was forming, between my lips, my chest, and... well, further down.

Suddenly I was feeling desperate to be closer to Maxx too, to be touched and to touch him, and I was scrambling to get him out of his tunic as quickly as I could, and not actually accomplishing much.

So, we continued in that way for a little while, losing more clothing, kissing and fondling each other and getting more and more exicted, until he had his hand on my thigh up under my skirt. We kissed again, I stretched my arms lazily, and Maxx made a kind of a yelping sound deep in his throat and tried to jump back. "Hey, don't get panicked, it's not that late yet," I teased, and daringly reached out to stroke Maxx's tunic just in front of the meeting of his legs, where I'd noticed a bulge earlier but not explored it for myself.

There was no bulge there, just softness, and I felt a cool shiver run all over me. What did that mean? Could guys be that hot and cold, literally? Did Maxx not like me any more?

I rose to my feet and stumbled away, trying to concentrate on buttoning up my top. After a moment, Maxx called out my name, and I spun around to face him. "What is it now?"

"Just - be careful, do you even see how close you are to the edge?"

I looked over my shoulder and down, and blanched slightly at the dark valley floor so many dragonlengths below. "Okay, no I didn't." I shuffled somewhat further from the precipice, at an angle so that I wouldn't end up much closer to Maxx. "What happened to you there? I - I know that something's wrong, and can't even bring myself to ask beyond that..."

"I - I saw something," Maxx mumbled. "When I was kissing you. I - well, I guess it scared me."

"Oh." That was something that I could accept and not be threatened by, maybe. "Was it dragons or something, looking for you?"

"No, not this time." Maxx shook his head as he got up himself. "I saw you, Lizza, but - maybe I was just seeing my fears about the future. You were with child - not just that, but you were in labour, and dying. And I - I couldn't help you."

That was so far from anything that I'd expected him to say that it took me a moment to respond, and then I realized that I was coming close to him, instinctively wanting to offer comfort. "How - how can you be so sure that it was that bad? Most women are in pain and cry out during childbirth, and - well, most of the time they bear safely."

"But not always," Maxx pointed out. "And neither of us knows what the dangers might be of siring a visitor child on an ordinary Pernese girl. I don't know how I know that you were in mortal peril, Lizza, but - I can't remember that vision and think that it was an ordinary or safe labour."

"Alright, I'll trust you in that," I said. "So if you say that we shouldn't do anything that could get me in the family way - of course I agree with that, for several different reasons. It would be hard to start off my apprenticeship at the Healer Hall with a good impression if I were carrying your child, and no formal agreement of espousal between us. And I - I haven't started taking herbs yet. Do you have any of - you know, those things?"

Maxx was staring at me, and seemed to take a long moment before realizing that I'd asked him a question. "What things?"

"Than a man and a woman can use, when they lie together. It goes on his... organ, and seperates it from..."

"Oh - okay," Max muttered, shaking a hand vaguely back and forth. "No, I don't. I'm not even certain where you go to get such things."

"Alright, well, there's a lot we need to plan for, obviously. But there's ways for two people to please each other, without even needing to.."

Maxx stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, brushing his face against my hair and making a soft hushing sound. "It - it means a lot to me that you're so full of ideas and plans, my dear, dear Lizza. But I rather think that the romance of the night has been lost. We should be getting back down into the Hold."

I sighed. "Are you sure? We're not likely to get chances like this once we're living at Healer Hall."

"Even so." Maxx let one arm go and kept the other wrapped around me, turning both of us towards the fireheight stairs, and then stopped still.

There was somebody standing very still between the stairway door and the two of us. He must have come out onto the heights at some point while we'd been distracted. And it was Kylo.

"What in the first shell is wrong with you?" I screamed, and tried to charge towards him, but Maxx's arm held me back gently. "Does it make you feel good to spy on the two of us as we take a lover's moment together?"

"Well, I thought I'd see what young Evans could do for you that I couldn't," Kylo sneered back. "Maybe you like the fact that he's a lamewing."

I snarled and tried to throw Maxx's arm away, but he bent to whisper in my ear. "Don't give him the satisfaction of seeing you angry. You know that's part of what he wants."

That made sense, but it was still a hard bit of advice to take. "Stand aside, Kylo," I said, trying to substitute determination for anger. "We're going back inside, right now."

He stared at me for just a moment, then took one step to the side. I hurried forward, dragging Maxx behind me by his arm, taking a curved path so as to stay well out of Kylo's reach. As we passed him, though, Kylo spoke again. "I know that you're keeping a secret, little Evans. And I promise you on the soul of my dear mother, I will find it out."

Maxx urged me on, but I didn't really want to dignify that outburst with a response either. As the two of us started down the stairs, though, I worried about it. The last thing we needed was somebody in Ruath Hold suspecting Maxx and trying to investigate him, at the same time as the Riders might be trying some other ploy to find their Thread-man. Kylo was stubborn, and he'd learned how to ferret out hidden things from his father.

Of course, Maxx wouldn't be living in Ruatha for much longer, and all of a sudden I was relieved about that. But if Kylo couldn't harass Maxx anymore, he might look for another close target, and...

I broke out into a fit of giggles as we turned around on one of the dark landings, and Maxx shot me a look. "Is something wrong, my darling?"

"Well, sort of, but there's a silver lining. I've just come up with the perfect way to get Mari to stay close to Izabella, while the three of us are away at the Halls." As long as Izabella wouldn't lose her temper at Mari hovering close to protect her from Kylo's investigations,

At the point where the stairs opened out onto the highest level of the Hold, I signalled to Maxx that we should wait and be quiet. There was no sound of anybody, particularly no sign of Kylo following us down the stairs. So I whispered to him. "What did your parents say about fostering you and Izabella? Everybody knows that they aren't your natural parents."

Maxx considered the question for a short moment. "My father was out visiting some of the smaller cots near the Boll border, offering his services as arbiter if necessary, or teacher, or playing the new songs as best he could. He still had some of his singing voice left in those days, I think.

"Anyway, the last place he and Mother stopped before returning to Ruatha was a small mining Hold, and there he discovered a tragedy. The living quarters must have collapsed. Everybody was trapped by the falling stone, except for an uncle who tried to save his family and whose heart gave out as he worked - and two little children who must have been sleeping in the schoolroom."

I nodded. Maxx must be telling me his father's story now, not the truth, just in case Kylo or somebody else overheard, despite my precautions. That was smart of him.

"After taking us back to Ruatha, Father immediately fostered Izabella and I, and Lord Jerood traced down the family that had been living in that Hold. The mother of the Holder came up from South Boll, and admitted that she wasn't sure if her son and his spouse had had children five Turns back, but she thought that the two of us might be her kin. In any event, she supported Father and Mother as foster parents, and though there was supposed to be another couple at the hold who might have been parents, unrelated to the family, nobody was able to find out who their kin might be."

"I see," I said, leading Maxx out into the corridor. "You love your parents very much, don't you?" Maxx just nodded. "Well, we're not far from my family quarters, and I should probably go there directly. Do you want to..."

"I should pay my respects to Master Parker, and your mother, at least," Max assured me with a smile."

"Mother will make you stay for an after-dinner mug of something wholesome and pastries," I warned him.

"That doesn't sound bad at all." He held me close and walked up to the door.

#

Master Whitman had us out the main Hold Doors before the sun had risen over the mountains - Maxx, and myself, and another apprentice, a boy named Niklos. Niklos was only fourteen turns, but loved showing off just how smart he was, and he seemed to have learned a lot about the Healer's craft in the two turns that he'd been apprenticed to Whitman.

The Master quizzed all of us as we walked across the valley to the large field cot - I got a few answers right, but not as many as Niklos. Maxx did better than Niklos, but then, Whitman seemed to expect that of him, being older and having served as apprentice for longer. I started to wonder if Maxx would be able to walk the tables soon after we got to the Healer Hall and become a journeyman - and I flubbed a question that I should have been able to figure out, to serve me right for distracting myself.

Attending with the Healers as they made the rounds of the infirmary was one of the hardest things I've ever been through, right up there with standing on the hatching ground with a Gold dragonet or getting stabbed with a dueling knife. There wasn't much actual blood, but I hadn't realized that so many other disconcerting things could happen to a human body - we somebody who had tiny insects crawling around under his skin, and an bubble of pus developing in a woman's arm, and a man whose leg became infected when he broke it in four places. But at least I didn't lose my meager breakfast, and I only needed to step away and get fresh air once - after seeing the bugs for the first time.

It was late afternoon before we started walking back to Ruatha. Whitman fell into step beside me. "You did well today, Lizza."

"I did?" I tried to calm my voice. "That is to say, I'm glad you think so, Master."

"It can't have been an easy day for you, but I'm impressed with the poise that you were able to keep, and how well you were able to apply theoretical knowledge to practical problems in the field."

"But - but we didn't even have any cut wounds to look at," I blurted out, remembering the skins and writings that I'd studied so carefully the day before.

"No, but I'm thinking that this must have been the first time you treated a third degree burn. But you knew exactly how to assist."

"Oh - that was just something that Mother drilled through my head."

"I realize that - but such things are the heart and soul of the craft. At the Harper Hall, you will have to drill the material through your own head, but I know from yesterday that you can study hard when you apply yourself."

I smiled. "So you'll be recommending me to the MasterHealer tonight?"

"Yes, I certainly can - if you answer me one more question. Having seen more of what it's all about, are you sure that you want to follow the Healer's path?"

I had to think about that. I'd been determined to prove myself as a Healer apprentice ever since Maxx had brought up the notion, but now I'd learned enough to realize that it would be a harder path than Maxx made it sound.

When I considered the alternatives, though, the choice was clear. "Yes. I'm ready for this."

"Great," Maxx said from behind us. "We'll have to have a special celebration tonight."

"Yes we will," Whitman said. "And I'm afraid I will feel obliged to invite your parents too."

#

In all there were as many who crowded around the semi-private alcove in the Ruatha lower levels as had gathered to toast Mechall's good fortune at the Weyr; Mechall wasn't back yet of course, but Mari's mother was there to take his place. For a second it seemed to me that I would never get away from this unlikely extended family, and then the truth hit me. In less than a seven-day now, I'd be living at the Healer Hall, sharing a small dormitory hall with other apprentice girls. Maxx and Aless would be at the Halls, but Aless would be over on the Healer's side, and I didn't know how often I'd be able to see him. Visits back to Ruatha to see Mari or my parents would be infrequent.

I was wondering if all the other Healer apprentices would have several year's head start on me, and if they'd put me in a dorm with the younger girls, or with apprentices my age who were taking more advanced studies, when Maxx nudged my elbow. "You should pay better attention, my dear."

"Yes, of course - did somebody ask me a question, sweetheart?" I said, getting a giddy thrill out of using the endearment in front of everybody. I wanted my parents, and his, to know how fond I was of Maxx, after all.

"Not really. I was just about to raise a glass to the Healer Craft's newest apprentice. Thought you should remember the moment."

"Oh, of course. Raise away."

My mother chuckled, and Max stood, tapping his mug faintly with a spoon. "Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends... to Apprentice Lizza!" Everybody tapped mugs and drank.

"How very eloquent you are," I whispered to Maxx when he'd taken his seat again.

"Sorry, I had something fancier in mind, but I got flustered and didn't want to mess up your dedication."

"That's okay. I like it when you're direct and to the point."

Mother cleared her throat. "Master Whitman, will you be teaching Lizza full-time from now until they leave for the Hall?"

Whitman considered. "I suppose not, though there's a lot for her to learn, and now's as good a time as any to get started."

"Yeah - they'll be giving us all placement tests as soon as we arrive at Healer Hall," I said. "I want to show our Healer in the best possible light as a teacher as I can."

"Don't worry overmuch about that," Father put in. "I'm sure that they won't have great expectations for someone who just started training in the craft a few days before arriving."

"Well, we'll need to pack your bags for the Hall," Mother pointed out.

"Not more than two bags," I insisted. "I don't want to look like some pampered Holder girl who can't breathe without a pile of baggage taller than she is."

Izabella stiffened slightly when I said that, and shot me a look as if she thought that I was talking about her. I hadn't meant to - but that reminded me of the idea that I'd had last night.

#

After the dessert course, I managed to get a private word with Mari, in the ladies' Privacy actually. "So, Kylo surprised Maxx and I up on the Fireheights yesterday evening, after we'd finished our picnic," I said as Mari washed her hands. "He said that he knew Maxx had a secret, and he was going to figure it out."

"Kylo's an idiot, he couldn't figure out a soup," Mari said. "Plus, what do you really care? You and Maxx will be off to the halls soon."

"That's true, we will," I said. "But when we're gone, I was wondering if Kylo would focus his attention on Izabella. Not romantically, I mean, though I wouldn't entirely put it past him to try to steal her away from Aless. But he could try to figure out if she's part of Maxx's secret, which she is."

"Okay, so what do you want?" Mari asked, turning to me and flicking a drop of cold water onto my tunic. "Is this your roundabout way of asking me to be Izabella's friend while you three apprentices are gone, because she'll be all alone except for me, and her parents?"

"Well, actually yeah. I particularly think that she'll need a friend on account of Kylo, but it's probably a good idea regardless. I'm sorry that I wasn't straighter about it, but I wasn't quite sure how to ask until I made the connection with Kylo."

"That s'okay," Mari told me, talking the thick cloth to dry herself off with. "And yes, I'll do what I can, though Izabella doesn't exactly open herself up to new people easily."

"Yeah, I know," I admitted, "Maybe Maxx can say something to her and help clear the way for you a little, once I tell him that I've talked to you about it."

"Alright," Mari said, and sighed without much enthusiasm. "You're so lucky to finally be getting out of this place,"

"Hey watch your mouth, talking about my home like it's some kind of misbegotten hole in the ground," I told her. "Ruatha is the best hold on all Pern."

"Okay, okay, maybe it's not about the place." Mari pursed her lips at me. "I just feel like I don't have any prospects in my life, you know? I didn't make a big deal out of it when I knew that you were in the same boat, especially since you're so much brighter and more talented than I am. But now you're off to become a Healer, or a Healer's assistant anyway, and I'm not any closer to being more than a serving drudge myself."

"You'll get your chance, Mari," I said. "I'm not sure if you're cut out to join one of the crafts, but there are all kinds of other ways to make something great out of your life."

"If you're so moon-eyed over Maxx that you're going to give me the line about raising children being the most fufilling lifestyle choice of all, I may hit you," Mari warned, opening the Privacy door.

"No, of course not," I said, shaking my own head, making the runner-tail that I'd tied my hair into that morning fly out from side to side. "In fact - well, Maxx and I agreed that we're not ready for kids for a long time yet. But do you really believe that I'd tell you something like that at this point? I was thinking of - well, of very different outlets than a guy and a family."

"Really? Like what?"

"I'm not sure. You're good at organizing people and things that need to get done, and you've got a good head for making marks and spending them wisely. I feel like there's got to be something that all that could add up to."

"It sounds like you're describing a Hold Steward," Mari pointed out. "But I don't think Jerood is going to give a girl a try out in that position, or even in the sort of responsibilities that he uses to train well-born fosterlings into the practice of Holding."

"Let me think about it," I asked.

"Okay. But if you point me towards my true path in life, if that leads me away from Ruatha too, then I'll have to leave Izabella behind and friendless."

"Well, we'll worry about that when the time comes, won't we?" I said. "Come on, let' see what they've started talking about while we've been gone."

Mari nodded and followed me back to the table.

#

I only got a little time alone with Maxx, outside his family quarters, before he had to go in and join his family. I told him that Mari had agreed to be Izabella's friend, but she was worried about Izabella not letting down her walls and being open to friendship.

"Well, if I try to push the issue, it might just make things worse," Maxx said. "The stubbornness thing. Actually, it might be Aless who can get through to my lovely sister best, if he tries the right tack. I might just try to get a word with him, to make sure he understands the right approach."

"And what approach is that?" I said, then kissed him on the lips. "If it isn't a secret that I'm not allowed to know."

"Well..." Maxx kissed me back. "If I tell Aless, on the grounds that he's the one that Izabella has let into her heart, I can hardly deny the same information to the girl who I've let into mine, can I?" I shook my head, which made Maxx miss his next kiss, and his lips landed on the curve of my cheek. "Well, it's a subtle thing; I know that Izabella will be lonely enough with myself and Aless gone that she'll really want a friend. More than anything, she'd need to really understand that she can trust Mari, which is something that has to go deeper than being told so. I don't really know Mari enough to trust her very deeply myself, though I've accepted her because you do. So I figure that Aless needs to show Izabella why he trust Mari."

"That makes sense," I said. "I do feel a little bad for Mari. She didn't want to make a big deal out of it and rain on my Gather, but I could tell that she was disappointed in a way that I made Apprentice, and she's still stuck in the Klah Lounge on drudge duty."

"Hmm... yeah, it's tough," Maxx admitted. "I know that Izabella wants to find some better prospect than just espousing Aless - especially since it'll become suspicious if she doesn't have babies when she's still young, and we're all nervous about the prospects."

"Did - did you tell her about the vision that you had last night?" I asked him.

"Actually, yes - I'm sorry. I didn't go into any detail about what we were doing at the time. But it's hardly the first time that the topic has come up between us." Maxx shook his head. "So, what sort of prospect do you think would be good for Mari?"

I told him what I'd thought about her strengths, and he got a thoughtful look. "Hmm... I might have the start of something, but I'll need to work it through. Don't let me forget about it until we have to leave Ruatha, though - okay?"

"Of course not," I said, and kissed him one last time before I had to go.


	8. Chapter 8

"So, I've arranged a little surprise for the four of us," Izabella said, as we started our breakfast with Maxx and Aless. I exchanged glances with the boys. Maxx looked about as nervous about this as I did, while Aless seemed proud of and pleased with his new lady friend.

"A surprise that we can fit in before having to leave and go to Fort Hold?" Maxx prompted calmly.

"Actually, a surprise that will change when you leave and how you get to Fort Hold," Izabella said.

"Let me guess," Aless tried. "You want to ride most of the way with us, leaving early and going slow so that we can enjoy the trip?"

"Not quite. Not riding, at least, not as much as you were thinking of. We sail partway."

"Sail?" I repeated. "Do any of us know anything about sailing?"

Izabella looked at me as if horrified, and Aless turned his affectionate smile from Izabella to me without changing it much. Even Maxx seemed a bit surprised at my remark.

"Izabella is passionate about sailing," Aless pointed out.

"We have an uncle on our mother's side who's a Fishercrafter down at Fort Sea Hold and took us both on for lessons," Maxx explained. "I didn't take to the open water as eagerly as Izabella, but I know some of the basics of handling a boat or a very small ship."

"Okay," I said, and turned to Aless, trying to remember if he had a marine background that had slipped my background. "I know that you went to Telgar [?] on a ship with your parents when you were eleven, but you can't have learned that much about sailing."

"Just that I didn't get seasick, really," Aless agreed.

"Oh, seasickness," Izabella said. "Lizza, I didn't even think about that. Do you know if you're prone to that?"

"Not a clue, really," I said. "I've been on rowboats out in the Rua river, but that's about it." Izabella was so downcast that I felt a strong urge to cheer her up. "So let's not worry about that for now. What else did you think through?"

Her lovely face brightened in a heartbeat. "Okay, there's a yacht waiting for us down at Janus cot - that's a little sea cot down at the foot of the valley, where the Rua meets the open sea. I'm sure that between Maxx, I - and two landlubbers willing to work hard, we can handle her for anything that comes up, and we won't have to go fast, so we won't be too busy with sailing stuff."

"And just what were you thinking about the timing?" Aless prompted.

"Oh, right. We can leave tomorrow afternoon, get to the cot by sunset and stay anchored the night within sight, just in case. Then we just need to get to Fort Sea Hold in a day and half - the other apprentices are going to be going through there the day after Rest, right?"

"Yes," Maxx agreed. "Well, this is a very nice surprise, sister dear, but I have to admit that it complicates a plan that I was hatching myself - for Mari's benefit, so I probably shouldn't say too much more about it while she's not around."

"A plan for Mari?" I said, suddenly overcome with curiosity, but I suspected that if Maxx had made up his mind not to talk about it behind Mari's back, I wouldn't be able to tempt him into giving me more details. As much fun as it might be trying...

"Well, why wait to get everything sorted out?" Izabella asked. "Lizza, will she be working up at the Klah Lounge this morning?" She rose to her feet and looked intently at me.

"Umm - no, she's not on the breakfast shift this morning, I think," I muttered. "In fact, I spotted her with her mother, heading to the other side of the common hall." I waved in the proper direction. "I'd have called her over, but she's getting a little tired of being the fifth wheel on our little wagon."

Izabella nodded, and turned to go off in search of Mari. "Izabella, I don't need to..." Maxx started, and then broke off when it became evident that his sister wasn't paying much attention to what was being said. "I'm sure that we can work out both surprises at the same time."

"Well, I'm glad to know that," Aless said. "And just why are you making surprises for Mari anyway?"

"Well, that might have something to do with me," I said in a whisper. "I mentioned how bad I was feeling that I'd be going away to the Healer Hall and leaving Mari without better prospects." I turned to Maxx. "But when you said that you'd have to think about it and see what you could work out, I expected that it'd take sevendays and more."

"Well, it might have," Maxx admitted. "But I got the basics worked out quickly, and asked my father to help me with the arrangements. A chance to see Mari get her chance before we left for the Hall sounded like it was worth a try, wouldn't you say?"

"Hmm... I'll reserve judgement on that until the surprise is out of the bag," I said, and Maxx shrugged.

"That might be soon," Aless said, pointing out Izabella and Mari approaching our table.

Soon both of them were settled, Mari pulling up a spare chair from further down the line, and setting down her plateful on the trestle top. "Okay, so what's this big surprise that you've got for me, Maxx?" Mari asked him.

Maxx hesitated. "First, have you heard Izabella's news?" Mari looked over at Izabella, shook her head, and then listened without much enthusiasm as Maxx recounted the plan. I listened anxiously, not quite sure why Maxx felt it was important to tell her this part if it wasn't just a scheme to raise the suspense. I could certainly understand why Mari wasn't wild to hear about our sailing adventure - she'd be left out, and wouldn't want to ask to intrude on our couple's time. Not that Mari was any more of a sailor at heart than I was, but I was starting to feel excited about the prospect, after all.

"Now, Masters Whitman and Ennis arranged for all the apprentices to ride to Fort along with the Fjellgar trading caravan," Maxx explained. "You've heard of them, right?"

"Well, of course," Mari explained. "Mom arranges for them to move packages for her sometimes." Even if it hadn't been for that connection, it was unlikely that any of us wouldn't have heard of that caravan. It wasn't one of the bigger caravans that came infrequently and arranged gather attractions whenever they were near, but they came to Ruatha often and were an important connection between Ruatha and some of the other nearby Holds.

"Right. Well - I hope that you don't mind my presumption, but I was thinking that a person with your talents might do well in a trader caravan."

Mari was astonished. "But - but I'm not 'trader people.' It's a family business."

"That caravan has several people from the same family co-ordinating at the moment, but it's not a traditional family caravan," Aless told her. "They taught us that as an example of a principle in Mediation and Arbitration. What's the word? They're a co-operative."

"And there's no limit to how well someone does except for his or her talent," Maxx said. "What about it, Mari? If you sign on, you'll have to start at the bottom, but anybody can rise quickly."

Mari still looked stunned, and Izabella was at a loss for words too. "Nobody's going to push you into this," I said. "But it sounds like a great opportunity for you, to me."

Mari took a deep breath. "Where do they go, again? I'm sure that I should know, but it's gone right out of my head."

"It's a basic four-point route, with some optional stops along the way based on the season and the schedule," Maxx said. "From Ruatha down to Fort Sea Hold, up to Fort Hold proper, up to the Weyr, and then back here."

"Hmm, that's an interesting route," I whispered to him. "That'd let Mari visit regularly with just about everybody - Izabella here, the three of us at the Halls, and a certain friend of yours who's impressed a dragon."

Maxx nodded, and Mari looked between us for a moment, her eyes narrowing. I know that Mari hadn't wanted any of us to suggest a connection between her and Mechall once Mechall had impressed at the Hatching, because her father had abandoned her to become a dragon rider. But then she shrugged and partly changed the subject.

"So, if the four of you are leaving for your boat tomorrow afternoon..."

"It's a yacht, not a boat," Izabella insisted.

"And when does the caravan get to Ruatha?" Mari pressed.

I jumped in with this one. "They're hoping to arrive later in the night, but might have to camp further down the Ruatha valley and get here on the morning of Rest-day."

"I wonder if we'll cross paths with them coming and going," Aless wondered out loud."

"Not too likely," Maxx said.

"So, the big question - how will this big idea of yours work if you're not around, Maxx?" Mari pressed. "I assume that you gave me a reference, or had your parents or your Master do that much. Who should I be talking to, how do I find him or her, and how do I demonstrate that I'm really Mari?"

"Do you really need Maxx doing all the legwork for you, Mari?" I asked her. "Now that you've got the idea, you could find out what you need to know from your mother."

"I'd rather get by with help from my friends," she said with a sigh.

"Well, the caravan foreman is named Jess, and he'll be having summer with Master Whitman," Maxx said. "Whitman helped me make most of these arrangements. I'm sure that he can introduce you, if you like."

"Alright." Mari sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better go tell Mom about our plans - and Master Parker. He'll really need to find somebody else to help him out in the Lounge now, huh Lizza?" I nodded in agreement. "And you have a great time at sea - because if you're going to skip our last Rest-day at Ruatha, it had better be worth it."

"Yeah, but we'll see each other again soon," I told her.

"It's just not going to be the same."

I couldn't really argue with that sentiment.

#

The remaining hours that I had in Ruatha seemed to blow by me like a rushing wind. Mother spent too many marks to buy me a carrisac full of suitable apprentice clothes, even though that's not really a parent's responsibility. She spoke with the Weaver Master and spent time finding the exactly appropriate shade of green that would compliment my skin and yet look the part of a Healer, and so I got several outfits that would be suitable for classes or chore groups, and one new Gather dress. I didn't protest at all, really.

So, I went down to wait inside the Hold doors the next afternoon, and saw Maxx and Izabella already there. Aless had told us that he might be a little late in a vocal lesson, so I wasn't too worried about him not showing up at once. I was a little surprised when I saw Mari coming up. "So, Izabella, just what was the plan for getting down to Janus cot? Are you all renting runners?"

"Hmm?" Izabella concentrated for a moment on the question. "No, we're walking. There's nobody to lead runners back, after all."

"Really?" Mari's eyes narrowed just a little. "It's four and a half hours for a good message-runner from here down to Janus, and none of you are trained runners."

"I know it's a long way," Izabella muttered. "But runners aren't a better solution."

"Unless you want to volunteer to lead four horses up the valley, not counting yours," I put in.

"No, that wasn't my thought." Mari shook her head. "But I do have a little idea for getting all of you to Janus sooner and myself back home - if you're interested."

"Just don't tell me that it has to be a surprise," Maxx said, and a little burst of laughter escaped me.

"You don't get to complain about throwing surprises at this point, apprentice," Mari said. "But now that the last of our company is approaching, I'd be happy to explain in great detail."

To tell you Mari's plan in somewhat less detail, she'd gotten the covered wagon that her uncle used sometimes to gather in crops and other goods from around the area, and borrowed two good pack beasts. The wagon wasn't as fast as riding our own runners would be, but it was more than twice [?] the pace that I could have covered on foot, and not as tiring.

Izabella asked Aless to tell us a story once we were well on our way to the bridge, and he started to recite a fantastic story about four riderless dragons, (pretty much an impossibility in itself, since any dragon would go between and suicide if it doesn't find a rider when it hatches, or if its rider dies,) who set out on a great quest to find the route 'Between' to the Red Star and meet the Queen of all thread in honourable combat. But first, they needed to fly to other continents, perform labours for mysterious oracular creatures, and rescue the innocent from huge brutish men who delighted in eating human flesh.

"That was quite a yarn," Maxx said when Aless had finally finished his performance, and the sea was visible in the distance below us. There were parts of the epic that had been in true song, which Aless had managed as well as he could in his high tenor, and parts in a rhyming chant, and parts that had been more of a conversational storyteller style. "Did you write it yourself?"

"Me? Shells, no." Aless laughed. "Journeyman Proctor taught it me - he's the most recent Assistant Harper, sent up from the Hall just after Midwinter's, and if I recall correctly, the composer on record was a Master Tuero, who'd been Journeyman at Ruatha during the great plague." He chuckled. "Proctor said that he looked it up after reading a reference in the journal of Masterharper Tirone that he didn't think much of such outrageous fancies and figments of the romantic imagination, but didn't hold his reservations against Tuero after all the horrible realities that they'd lived through."

"Well, I'm glad that he kept a record of the story, at least," I said. "Pern would be poorer without it. Has anybody else appreciated it in the years since Tirone? Besides us and Proctor, that is."

"Probably a few, but not many that I know of," Aless said. "It's probably never even been performed for large audiences. It'd be too easy for somebody to mistake the whimsy for 'disrespect' - to dragon-riders, among others."

"The riders get too hung up on proper honor and respect," Mari said. "I mean, I do respect what they do for Pern, but most of the ones that I've seen just take entitlement too far." She sighed. "Oh, speaking of which, any news from Mechall up at the Weyr?"

"No, and I'm starting to get a bit worried about him," Izabella answered after a moment.

"There's no reason to worry," Maxx told her firmly. "Just how is he supposed to send word? He's certainly busy with Guerinth, and the dragonet won't be able to fly for a while yet. He wouldn't want to ask to send a public message to us on the drums, and won't have marks to pass something to a message runner."

"So I guess you might be the next to hear from him, Mari," Aless said. "When the caravan makes it up to the Weyr."

"Okay, yeah." Mari sighed at that, and urged the burden beats along.

#

"Okay, here's your little pleasure cruiser over here," the seawife said, leading us along the floating dock. She was a tall woman of maybe fifty turns, but hard-muscled instead of growing fat. "And thank you very much, Lady Izabella."

"I'm no lady," Izabella protested. "I'm glad that you liked the picture."

I was curious what picture she was talking about, especially as nobody had asked us for marks to rent the yacht, but before I could make up the nerve, the little ship itself distracted me. It was maybe a brown dragon-length long, with one mast and a sail of green and blue vertical stripes, plenty of lines all over the deck, and a hatch that led into what looked like a roomy below-decks for four people. I could just make out the tiller control in the stern, not that I'd really know what to do with it.

"Okay, everybody aboard..." Izabella started, and then caught something as she looked around. "Excuse me. Thank you very much for coming with us, Mari, and a safe journey back to Ruatha." A little nervously, Izabella put her arms around Mari and embraced her for a moment. and I followed up with a more natural hug for my old friend. Maxx shook Mari's hand while telling her thank you and goodbye, and Aless embraced her too.

"You're welcome guys, and I'll see you all in under two days, remember?" Mari pointed out, and went with the seawife back to dry land. The rest of us crew clambered on board the yacht, and Izabella gave us orders with the poise of a born captain. I didn't follow them as naturally to start, mostly for lack of practice and knowledge of the sailor's language, but started to pick up the basics of what I needed to know quickly.

And just as I was starting to get the hang of it, Izabella gave out new orders. "Okay, we're at a good depth, I think. Furl the sail and drop the anchor - and in time to get set up for dinner before the sunset, too. Good think that Mari thought of that wagon."

"Great, I'm starved. Sailing certainly gives one an appetite. What's available to eat?" I asked. Izabella had brought along some supplies, but it hardly seemed like enough to feed the four of us for more than a day.

Maxx chuckled, and I looked over at him, but it was Izabella who answered. "Well, somebody could break out the honey-cakes before they go stale, but I was thinking of a traditional sailor's supper, which could take a while." She waved out at the water all around us. "We've got plenty of poles and good line, and there'll be yellowtail looking to feed at dusk."

"Fish?" I repeated, not having thought of this. "I mean, I do like yellowtail - baked or in a big kettle of fish stew. But here on this little yacht..."

"We won't have to eat it raw, if that's what you're edging towards, Lizza," Aless told her with a little smile. "Didn't you see the little brazier down below decks?"

"Umm, no, I guess I didn't spend enough time down there," I muttered. "Izabella had me busy up here while you guys were stowing the bags down." Aless nodded and favored me with a smile. "So - who does the cleaning and who mans the grill?"

"That's up to whoever catches the fish," Izabella said with a laugh, handing out some poles. I sighed, realizing that since I had no practice at fishing, I might end up with the dirtiest jobs. "We can mix up a bowl of greens once the fish is frying, and there are rasb-apples for dessert."

Nobody got so much as a nibble before the honey cakes were eaten, by which point the edge of the sun was disappearing behind the hills. It didn't seem like a particularly impressive sunset, without very much color, and aside from that it was about like any sunset I'd ever seen from Ruatha valley, except from further away. "Will sunrise on the water be more impressive than this?" I asked.

"I suggest waking up early enough to find out," Izabella teased me, and then my line tugged for just a moment.

"Uh-oh." I tugged on the pole myself, and didn't feel the weight of a fish holding it down. "Did some stupid fish just steal the bait off my hook?"

"If a fish did that, then I'd call it a clever fish," Maxx said with an apologetic shrug.

"Bait again, and this time, remember to keep jiggling the line," Aless suggested. "They say that's to attract fish, but I think it would also make it harder to take the bait without getting hooked."

So I started to reel the line in - and then I felt the weight. Somehow there must have been enough slack that I hadn't felt it before. "No, it - it's on the line," I muttered. "What do I..." Suddenly there was a strong pull that nearly drew me overboard, but Maxx managed to catch my belt just before I was out of range.

"Give it a little more play in the line," Izabella called over to me. "Just enough so that it'll tire itself out."

It took a long time for me to reel and haul that modest yellow-tail in, and Maxx had a bite of his own by then, but I was the first one to bring a fish in - well, Izabella netted it right at the end, but I don't figure that as being against my accomplishment, because the netter is like the assistant fisher. And with considerable glee, I told Aless that he had to clean and cut the fish, but by the time he'd finished, Izabella was reeling one in herself, so I volunteered to go below decks and work the brazier.

"We don't need to start grilling yet," Maxx protested. "The sunset hasn't even finished yet."

"I'm not missing much," I said. "Besides, won't the fish taste better the sooner we get it into the frying pan?"

"I can't really argue with that point," Izabella said. "The salt and the herbs are in the overhead basket closest to the brazier, Lizza."

So I was the designated fryer-cooker for our dinner that night, and I didn't really mind. The worst part was spending so much time below decks, and hearing the others joking and talking amongst themselves while fishing and cleaning. By the time the last piece of fish was out of the frying pan, the light of the sunset had mostly faded out, and I looked around the sky. There were a few stars starting to come out, and one crescent moon following the sun into the west. And low on the horizon to the south, there were three bright stars in close formation.

"Hey, Lizza, stop staring off the side of the boat before you drop the rest of dinner back into the sea," Aless said, and I hurried back and split half of the fish off onto his plate. Then I started on the remainder myself, figuring that Maxx and Izabella had already gotten enough to feed them while they were working.

"I was just struck by those three stars to the south," I muttered. "Father took me up to the fireheights to sky watch in the middle of the night a few times, but I never saw them before."

"You won't see the Dawn Sisters in the middle of the night," Izabella said. "That's what sailors call them. They're uncanny stars, supposedly - never rise nor set in the sky, though they appear in different spots depending on where you are, as all the stars and moons do. But a little while after sunset, they simply go out, and then reappear before dawn."

"That makes them sound fantastic," I said. "There are rules that order the stars in the sky, just like laws of nature down here on Pern. Why should these three stars act so differently?"

"Who knows?" Maxx asked. "There may be laws of nature here around us, but different laws apply to different creatures. If you'd never heard of a dragon before and then saw one appear from Between and speak to his rider, you'd think it uncanny and fantastic."

"Right," I muttered. The analogy to Maxx, Izabella, and Mechall was obvious, too - three young people so different and 'uncanny' that the dragon riders were afraid of them. But even though we all knew their secret, and had a unique opportunity to speak with just about no possibility of being overheard, it didn't seem to make sense to risk upsetting Izabella with such talk just to rehash what we already knew...

But a question occured to me, and I blurted it out before stopping to think of if it was wise. "Aless, did Izabella tell you the story about how she and Maxx - came to Pern?"

There was a momentary hush. "Only bits and pieces," he said. "I didn't really want to push her about it. Maxx told you more?"

"Pretty much everything I can remember," Maxx whispered. "Sister dear, I do think it's probably time that he knows. I think I know part of why Lizza is asking about this."

"Then you might be ahead of me," I put in.

"If it's too hard for you to speak of, do you mind if I start the telling?" Maxx continued to Izabella. "As odd as it feels for the Healer to be telling a tale to a Harper."

"Hey, Harpers need to be good at listening to stories too," Aless put in. "There always needs to be a first Harper to hear the song - not that I'll ever retell this to anybody else, of course."

Izabella nodded to Maxx, and he started to tell Aless more or less the same stories as he'd told me, starting with how his first memory was waking up strapped into the chair in a dark place. This time, I noticed, he was deliberately much vaguer about certain details that I'd asked him about, admitting that while the 'sky egg' had been shaking and twisting, he couldn't see that much of the interior, and that he thought he'd been 'knocked between' after the final impact. (That's a colloquialism, not a true reference to 'between' the way dragons use it - when you're hurt or stunned so badly that you're not awake any more, but not really sleeping either.)

Aless considered this for a while. "Then - then there could be truly wicked strangers out there - not literally made of thread, but using their powers to hurt people. If so, then the riders who are hunting for thread-men aren't quite as deluded as we thought, just on the trail of the wrong strangers."

"Aless, do we really have to speak of such things?" Izabella asked.

"Maybe not," he admitted. "But I think that it might help to talk the situation through."

"Yes," I agreed. "And maybe if there are other strangers, they're just as misunderstood as Maxx is - somebody who hurt another by accident, perhaps, or to defend themselves, and now they're being hunted by the riders." I took a deep breath. "We don't know how to find such a person by ourselves. But the riders might have information, that put together with your own abilities, would point the way. The question is, do we want to risk finding them?"

"Somebody who could be a brutal killer?" Izabella summarized.

"There's been no fair and impartial trial," Maxx reminded her. "I might be interested in finding out what a man or woman of the stars could teach us about our origin. But - but when you speak of finding out the hunting records of the riders, Lizza - are you talking about having Mechall spy on them?"

"Carefully - so carefully that he might find nothing," I insisted. "That's much better than falling under suspicion, though he might be caught where he doesn't belong and be excused as a weyrling playing a prank."

"Mechall isn't good at being careful," Izabella said. "He might even be pulling stunts like that on his own initiative. If any of us encourage him..."

"We can see what he has to say to us, once we establish a secure path for messages, before suggesting any such thing," Maxx said. "Is there anything else that the two of you would like to talk through?"

I looked over at Aless. "No, nothing particularly springs to mind," he said, and I shook my head.

"Okay then," Izabella said, taking charge once again. "There's enough room for four below decks, but precious little privacy like that, and it looks like the weather's going to be warm and clear all night. Aless, do you mind sleeping out on deck? We can bundle up as warm as we need to in the furs and blankets."

"I think that would be just fine," Aless agreed, a smile spreading over his face.

#

This was the first time that Maxx and I had the opportunity to be really together at night, with no chaperones or anybody's quarters to hurry back to, and it was hard to weigh the excitement of that with our anxiety and fears about going too far together. I had started to mix a herbal powder into my morning Klah every day, which the local women of the Ruath valley put a lot of stock in to prevent carrying a child, but in making my inquiries about how to get the herbs, I'd found out a few things: that the weren't completely effective, and that I should take them every day for at least three sevendays, or better four, before being with Maxx for the first time. And when I'd told Maxx about that, he'd whispered additional doubts of his own, that such concoctions had only been tested, as far as we knew, with human couples, and his being a stranger might interfere with its effect.

So the upshot of that was that Maxx and I spent a while indulging our affection in the relatively harmless ways, but getting more deeply into them than ever before, kissing and touching each other in the private places, and ended up half satisfied and half frustrated when we agreed that it was time to stop lest our carnal urges carry us past the point of willpower to resist.

But still, it was very nice and rather sweet to fall asleep in Maxx's arms, with the gentle waves rocking the boat back and forth slightly. The dream that I had in the middle of the night wasn't exactly sweet. I probably should have expected something unusual in that respect, considering the effects that accompanied our first kiss - and the first few times he touched me, actually.

~~I don't remember much of the dream, but at least there weren't dragon eyes watching me again. There were still people in the dream looking for Maxx and the others - but they didn't ride dragons or runnerbeasts or anything familiar, but rode inside some kind of metal carts that ran by themselves down hard roads, surrounded by lots and lots of buildings out in the open. Maybe I shouldn't go to sleep so quickly right after a big fish dinner.

When I woke up from the dream, the hold of the yacht was mostly dark, but there was a faint light coming from the hatch up to the deck, which Maxx had left open, and immediately I remembered how I'd wanted to watch the sun rise over the open sea. Was that faint light the morning twilight that preceded the sunrise? It seemed more like that than starlight and moonlight. I ran a hand over Maxx's arm. "Sweetie, are you at all ready to wake up?"

"Wha izzit?" he mumbled very faintly.

"Come on, it's morning - well, almost. We can watch the sun come up over the water."

"And you'll wake Izabella and Aless. Can't this wait for tomorrow - when it'll be our turn to sleep up on deck, after all?"

I considered that. "What if the weather's cloudy tomorrow?" Actually, as far as I knew, it might be cloudy this morning, but I was up for checking and doubling my chances at least. "Okay, you stay in bed if you like. I'm going to check, very quietly, and not disturb them if I can possibly help it."

When I poked my head out of the hatch, I couldn't entirely stifle a giggle. Aless was still bundled up in the furs and blankets, though I could recognize his hair and the top of his forehead. But Izabella was already checking on some of the lines. "Maxx, is that you? Oh, good morning, Lizza. Can you help me raise anchor and trim the mains'l? We don't need the boys' help for every little thing."

"Well, no, we don't," I agreed, "but does it have to be this minute? I was hoping to sit up here, quietly, and watch the sun rise."

"We can be on our way before sunrise, I think, and with lines in the water. Is that quiet enough for you?"

My stomach lurched a little. "I'll hold a line if you want me to, but I don't think I can handle fresh fish for breakfast."

"Oh." Izabella stopped what she was doing and looked at me. "Sorry. Well, we do have some other supplies, for today at least. And if we get a good wind today, we'll be close enough to breakfast at Fort Sea Hold if you like."

"Okay, where do you want me?" I asked.

With the two of us working and making noise, Aless roused himself quickly, and Maxx crawled out of the hold soon after. As Izabella had promised, by the time the sun started to peek above the surface of the ocean, I was sitting by the side of our yacht, with a line in the water, and munching on a sweet pastry with one hand, Maxx's arm wrapped around my body. I looked around to see if Izabella and Aless were appreciating the beauty of the morning too - and saw that they were fiddling with something that looked more complicated by the other side. "What in the first shell is she trying to accomplish?" I whispered to Maxx.

"Looks like she's trying to get a little trawling net set up," Maxx said with a shrug.

#

Spending the day sailing down the coast was fun, but there isn't really that much to report of any interest. Since there wasn't any great need for speed, having all day to travel only a short way down the coast, Izabella suggested going into harbour at another small seaside cothold, just after we crossed the border into Fort Hold territory. The Holder's wife was delighted at the prospect of company, as most of the menfolk had gone off to trawl the depths, and offered us all hospitality for a nooning.

As we left that cot behind in the early afternoon, I turned to Izabella. "I don't really want to make it sound like I'm joining Maxx in meddling with the lives of people I've only just met, but would you want to turn this interest in the sea and sailing into a life's work?"

"Hmm?" Izabella considered that for a moment. "That depends. I may look like I know what I'm doing compared to the rest of you, but to any sea-holder, I'm still a landlubber. And even if I was given the natural respect of being sea people - Fisher-craft is a hard life, and if they let girls on the ships, they get the dirtiest jobs unless they can prove themselves as better than the boys..."

"No, somehow I can't picture you on a fishing boat," I said, laughing at the mental image. "No offense meant. But - well, what about taking landlubbers out on a boat like this for the fun of it, on rest-day? I think that there are people back at Ruatha who'd pay good marks for the experience of it, if they were approached the right way. And you'd be good at it - pleasant and knowledgeable, and somebody who the landlubbers would be able to connect with and who'd respect them, which a sea-holder who tried to start the same operation might not."

Izabella smiled at the thought. "I'm not sure I'm convinced that you're not a meddler at heart, Lizza."

"Hey, what can I say? When I get a good idea, I want to share it." I shrugged. "And speaking of, I think I just had another idea that I'd much rather share with your brother than yourself, so I'll go find him."

"You might have to wait a second to get much good of your idea," Izabella warned me, looking around. "As much as I've tried to dawdle and not take full use of the wind, at this rate we'll be at Fort Sea Hold well before dinnertime."

"Hmm." I considered that. "Well, dinner at the Hold doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"No, I didn't say so," Izabella allowed. "There'll probably be shellfishers arriving just before sunset, though, and if we're anywhere near we'll be asked to pitch in with the shelling."

Aless piped up from just behind me, where I hadn't noticed him approaching. "How about turning out towards deeper water, just for a spell? The weather looks fine."

Izabella considered that. "Well, maybe I suppose. The waves will be rougher further from shore, but probably not bad enough that we'll have trouble with them."

"I'll go ask Maxx what he thinks, if that's okay," I suggested, and Izabella nodded.

#

So we went out and circled a deep-water rock off the Fort coast, and made it back into the Sea Hold harbour just as the dusk was falling. There was still some shelling for each of us to do in exchange for our supper, but not very much, and the pinwheel chowder and freshly baked bread were definitely tasty enough to be worth the effort. The four of us ended up all on one side of a dinner table, opposite some of the crew of a cargo hauler on its way from Benden all the way to Tillek. Izabella asked some of them what it was like working on a ship like that, and I mostly just listened and enjoyed being next to Maxx.

And then a man in riding leathers walked down the empty space between the tables, and my blood went as cold as Between for a few seconds. I recognized his face from my time up in the Weyr; his name was B'ven, brown Relath's rider. More importantly, he was one of D'Nan's wingseconds, and on my list of key Fort Weyr personnel who be one of the Thread-man hunters.

Maxx immediately reached out his hand to circle my waist and held me silently for a moment. I knew that he was doing that to reassure me enough that I wouldn't give away how mich seeing the rider had distressed me, and with that simple comfort, I was able to banish the tears of fear that had been about to come to my eyes. But I didn't trust myself well enough to speak.

Aless did. "Know you what errand the honored Riders is here on?"

One of the hauler crew turned around and spotted B'ven. "No, I didn't even know that we had a dragon around. Possibly there's something important that needs to be delivered to the Weyr as soon as possible."

One of his fellows immediately debated this. "Well, if whatever it is is so important, why wouldn't the riders have collected it from its point of origin?"

"Maybe this is the point of origin, not just a way-station," Izabella suggested. "I know that the children gather seaweeds in the shallows - maybe some of them are important for healing wounded dragons, or - I don't know what else."

I let the conversation wash over me, and hoped that we'd be able to go back to the yacht for the night - and that B'ven wouldn't be watching it until morning, or pay us a visit there.


	9. Chapter 9

Once again, I woke up in the middle of the night. This time, there was almost no light - the sky had clouded up as we sailed into Fort Sea Harbour, so even though Maxx and I were sleeping up on the deck of the yacht, there were no stars or moons visible. I could vaguely catch a faint radiance that must be glowbulbs near the Sea Hold, and that was it.

And I heard somebody stumble and mutter under his breath as he stepped aboard the little ship.

Every part of me was immediately wide awake. I could feel Maxx next to me under the furs still, and while there might be some reason that Aless would have left the yacht in the middle of the night and be coming back to rejoin Izabella, there were other possible explanations for this turn of events, and it didn't seem wise to trust that this was my friend. For one thing, I still remembered the Rider I'd seen at dinner the night before - I hadn't heard for certain if he'd left or stayed the night at the Sea Hold. It didn't seem within a dragonrider's dignity to sneak onto a boat in the dead of the night for nefarious ends, but I wasn't feeling like I'd put anything past them now

It was actually quite easy to wait in the dark until the mysterious figure passed our makeshift bed and then take my chance. ~~I lost some time in freeing myself from the sleeping furs and Maxx's arms and just managed to grab an ankle with my arms and bring its owner crashing down to the deck. Immediately I started to worry about how annoyed Aless would be, if it were actually him. But surely he would see that I couldn't have taken the chance, wouldn't he?

Maxx instantly roused as the other man began to struggle and curse, though not really shout. I could tell that Maxx was surprised at being surrounded by such deep darkness, and suddenly had another thing to worry about. Maxx had told me, at some point, I don't remember exactly when, about some of the uncanny abilities that he, Izabella, and Mechall had practiced in the deepest secret, and one of them was the ability to radiate light from their hands, instead of using a fire or glow-basket. Surely, even three quarters asleep, he wouldn't forget himself so much as to use that ability before making sure that it was safe, would he?

Maxx didn't. In fact, before even worrying about light, he first called out to me. "Lizza? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I assured him. "Somebody was sneaking on board, and - well, I've still got ahold of his leg. Aless, please tell me it's not you."

There was a short pause. "If I told you I were Aless, would you believe me?"

"Hardly, stranger," Maxx told him, for the voice was deep and reedy, nothing like Aless' pleasant tenor, to say nothing of the fact that the joke wasn't Aless' type of humor. "Lizza, keep hold if you can. I'll shed some light on the situation." In only a minute or so, he'd fetched the glowbasket from a shuttered cabinet near the tiller, and Izabella and Aless had woken and come out on deck to consider the tall man who'd violated our privacy. He looked to be a few Turns past his twentieth, had a pale and ragged beard and mustache to match his wildly cut hair, and was wearing a seaman's coveralls but no crafter's badge.

"Who are you?" I asked him. "Are you working for the riders?"

"The weyrmen?" he exclaimed, sounding truly astounded at the prospect. Maxx shot me a cross look, and I realized that I probably shouldn't have mentioned such a thing, if we were trying to avoid drawing suspicion. Maybe I was the one who had made a mistake because I wasn't properly awake yet. Oh well. "My name is Gatten," the intruder continued. "I live here at Fort Sea Hold, and am beholden to Holder Bucsan. If you wish to complain of my behavior then it is up to him to pass judgement on me."

Maxx and Aless exchanged looks. "Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Aless pressed. "Trespassing on another's ship without authority is a crime against autonomy. I cannot imagine that Bucsan would be well pleased to be woken in the middle of the night for this complaint - unless it is on his authority that you are here." Gatten just stared dully at all of us. "We don't want to cause trouble," Aless continued. "What if we promised to not complain to Holder Bucsan or anybody else, if you just tell us what you came onto our ship for?"

There was a long pause, and Gatten's gaze flicked to Izabella, and then down towards the deck. His cheeks seemed to flush slightly in the dim glow light. "That is a very generous offer, but I'm afraid I cannot accept it."

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Izabella muttered. "I'd rather take him to the Sea Hold than let him go."

"Do we even have any idea what hour of the night it is?" Maxx asked. "Will there even be anybody awake at the Sea Hold?"

"I would think, at the least, there'll be a night guard," Aless said. "Who might not be eager to see this kind of trouble, but ~~I'm not sure what other choice we have." He pulled out a belt knife. "Let's move along, Gatten."

#

Sea Holder Bucsan smiled tiredly as soon as he came into the room and saw us gathered around Gatten. "Not again, Gatten." I blinked, not having expected that response. "I'm so sorry - you are honored guests and shouldn't have had to deal with a disruption like this. How bad was he?"

"Umm." I looked around at my friends, and they shrugged as if willing to let me take the lead. In an odd way, that made some sense. "He's been perfectly courteous, except for the little matter of sneaking onto our yacht in the dead of night and not explaining what he was doing here."

"Oh, I see." Bucsan turned to Gatten. "When I told you that you probably shouldn't talk about it to anybody, I didn't mean in a situation like this. These people - you really should admit to why you were there." Gatten just sat there and sulked at him. "Very well. You have one choice as to your punishment. Ten Turns in the Telgar mines, after which you must stand before me and Lord Holder Tangren again before being re-admitted to Fort Sea Hold or any other Hold looking to Fort, or... permanent exile, and we drum your name and your crimes so that all across Pern, any Harper will know what their Lord is getting into if he grants you sanctuary."

Gatten swallowed. "I choose the mines."

"Very well. I'll see about making your travel plans in the morning. My good man?" The night guard hurried over. "See that Gatten is secure for the night." And Gatten was led away. Once the five of us were alone in the Holder's study, Bucsan turned back to me. "I suppose it's up to me to explain what's going on here."

"Yes, I think that you'd better," Maxx said. "Had Gatten trespassed in this manner before?"

"Yes. Once he was caught in a guest's room here in the Hold, and it was passed off as an innocent mistake. He's not the brightest wit, Gatten is, and the guests involved didn't want to cause him any trouble. That was while my father was the Holder, though he was getting too old for some parts of the job. The first time Gatten was brought before me about it, he'd gone further. Not only sneaking aboard a boat where others of my dependents were sleeping, but - touching a woman, as she slept, in a way that she'd not have thanked him for."

I shivered automatically, and looked over at the others. Izabella looked as uncomfortable with that reference as I felt, and Maxx and Aless were both getting angry. "I thought that a Turn in the mines would scare him straight. While he was gone, a few stories surfaced that lead me to think that he'd tried it before and not been caught in the act. But I truly didn't think that - I'm so terribly sorry."

"I... I don't really know what to say," Maxx muttered. "To think of him doing that to Lizza..."

"Based on what little I know of Gatten's - preferences, I think it more likely it was your fair sister he was concerned with," Bucsan muttered. "Not that that makes much difference now, I suppose. If there's anything I can do to repay you for this dishonor..."

Aless shrugged. "I can't think of anything that we need now, other than to enjoy your hospitality until ~~the caravan comes through with the other apprentices, tomorrow afternoon."

"Then the debt shall be yours to draw on, when you have a need," Bucsan told them. "Fair Izabella - will you be accompanying your friends on their journey to the Fort Halls?"

Izabella jumped slightly at the way he had addressed her, but it seemed to be just a kind of formal courtesy. "No, Holder. My father and mother will be riding this way with the caravan, and then father will be assisting with some kind of mediation here before we return to Ruatha."

"Oh! So you and Maxx are the foster children of Journeyman Evans?" Izabella and Maxx nodded. "I hadn't made the connection before."

"Wait a second," I asked. "Forgive me if this was mentioned and I missed it, but how's the yacht getting back to Janus cot?"

"It's not, Lizza," Bucsan told me. "The new owners should be arriving early this morning on a ship from Ista."

"Right, that was part of the deal," Izabella agreed. "The sale was already agreed on, but Jana and her family couldn't spare anybody else to sail it up to Fort and then walk back, and they didn't want to make their buyers find runner-beasts to ride over. So the four of us get an opportunity to take a sale, and everybody else is convenienced too."

"Cleverly arranged," Aless said, taking Izabella's hand in his and kissing it. "Sea Holder, thank you very much for your time, but since I noticed that it's only starting the third watch of the night, we should probably leave off the courtesies and idle questions and return to our beds."

"Yes, well spoken," Bucsan said, standing up.

"Are you okay to go back to the boat, Izabella?" Maxx asked her. "Gatten won't be coming back, I'm sure."

"Yes, I'll be fine," Izabella snapped, then immediately softened slightly. "Thanking you for your concern, dear brother."

I followed the other three back out of the Sea Hold, wondering if I'd be able to get to sleep myself, considering that the prospect of more than one lurking deviant had been added in my mind to my fears about spying dragonmen. But when we got back to the bed and settled to retire again, I can't remember lying awake for more than a few seconds. Perhaps Maxx took it upon himself and his remarkable abilities to help me to sleep.

#

The next thing I remember, the sun was up, and I was lying in the hold of the yacht, not up on the deck where I'd been. Maxx wasn't next to me - in fact, there was nobody around that I could see, and so I splashed a little fresh water on my face, changed into a fresh Healer-green tunic, and headed up the ladder. Maxx immediately looked over and smiled. "Good, you're up. I was a little worried when I couldn't get you awake for the sunrise, or after."

"Be honest with me, Maxx," I said, smiling at him. "Did you - do something to help me get to sleep?"

"Well, yeah. I won't try it that way again, not after this."

I shrugged and decided not to ask any further about that. "So, what did I miss?"

"Well, let's see. Can you give me a hand with some of these lines? Izabella asked me to help out and make sure that the yacht was shipshape and trim before the new owners show up."

"Sure, just tell me what to do," I told him. "And make sure that I break fast before too long."

"Oh, right, you must be hungry," Maxx said. "Eat first - there's probably nothing much available at the Sea Hold, so help yourself to whatever's in the supply cabinet." I did, and began munching on slightly stale pastries. "So, all three of us actually went out on one of the fishing boats for a quick sunrise trawl, and then had breakfast at the Sea Hold - hot gruel and poultry eggs." I shot him a look. "Sorry that you couldn't make it for that."

"I'll survive," I assured him. "Anything else been going on? Where are Aless and Izabella?"

"Still up at the Sea Hold, talking to an uncle of Aless' who he hasn't seen in Turns, who's about to leave on a ship for Bitra tomorrow. He wanted to take the opportunity to get to know Aless' sweetheart, and I couldn't deny them that."

"Cool, that must be Uncle Alem. I hope that I get a chance to catch up with him too. It really has been - um, yeah, three and a half Turns since he was able to visit Ruatha."

Maxx smiled. "Yeah, I think he mentioned you too."

"No other rider sightings?"

"Weyrmen?" Maxx shook his head.

"Okay." I finished off the last edible-seeming morsel. "Should I furl the signalling flags and pack the bags that we'll be taking to the Healer Hall?"

Maxx laughed. "You really are very bright, my sweet. That was just what I was thinking of asking."

I kissed him and went aft to see to the flags.

#

The caravan from Ruatha got to the Sea Hold just in time for a late nooning, which had been delayed about as long as possible on their account. Izabella hugged her parents as soon as they were down off their runner, and I looked around for Master Whitman, but he didn't appear to have come along after all.

There was one Journeyman Harper who was in charge of all the Apprentices, and started to give Aless, Maxx, and I a lecture about how to behave ourselves on the trip, before the Sea Holder told him to let that wait until after we'd all eaten. Izabella wasn't eating with her parents, as I thought she might, and had saved seats for all of us at the same table as the other apprentices. It was a nice little occasion, but I was dwelling on the fact that I'd miss Izabella's company, and that made me think about Mari, and I looked around, as if wondering whether I'd missed her.

I couldn't spot her anywhere in the dining hall. By this point, the meatrolls were nearly finished, and nobody was up and moving around, but still, there were a lot of people whose faces I couldn't really check without getting up and doing a lap of the room. Rather than bothering with that, I whispered in Maxx's direction. "What about Mari? Did you see her as the caravan came in?"

Max's face fell as he was chewing. "I - I completely forgot that she was supposed to be coming too, I was just looking for Niklos, and my parents, and wondering who we should report to."

"I was looking for her," Aless put in. "And I didn't spot her. Do you think that the Fjellgars refused her a place after all?"

"I don't think that's it, but I couldn't say," Maxx admitted. "I'll ask Father after nooning. He should know what the story is."

And so of course, as I waited for news, the rest of the meal seemed to crawl by a little bit at a time. After the Sea Holder had made an impromptu speech welcoming the caravan to his holding, and Raylo Fjellgar said a few words of thanks in return, the sweet wraps were brought out, and Maxx took a chance to slip over to the table where his parents were dining, and had a quick conversation with his Father. When he headed back our way, he had a relieved smile on his face, so I knew that things would be okay for Mari.

"They offered her a position, but Mari's mother wanted her help with an impromptu Gather yesterday, and Raylo pointed out a few things that she should be packing and arranging before leaving Ruatha. Also, she wanted to stay on with your father, Lizza, until he'd found somebody else to help. So, the plan is that she'll start with the next time the caravan gets to Ruatha."

"We missed a gather back at Ruatha?" Aless said, and Izabella shot him a look. "Not that sailing with you wasn't fun too, darling. Anyway, all of that makes good sense, Maxx. We should have thought of all those little details."

"Maybe if I hadn't kept the whole thing as a surprise, she wouldn't have had to wait," Maxx muttered, looking down at the two wraps that I'd put onto his plate.

"And maybe a few more days wouldn't have made any difference," I said to him. "Your heart was in the right place, so don't flog your skin over it. Come on." I made a big and obvious munch out of my wrap. "There might be seaweed or something in these, but they're pretty tasty anyway."

#

I guess I thought that we'd get a chance to ride, when I thought of travelling with the caravan. Maybe we would have, if we'd started with them at Ruatha - three of the other apprentices got to share horses, (two with each other, one with an older man who worked with the caravan.) But Journeyman Riman informed us flatly that we'd be making the trip inside one of the wagons - with him, and one of Aless' fellow apprentice harpers.

It wasn't nearly as fun as sailing with Izabella was, though the five of us tried some games to play the time - riddles, and 'name that bird call', and even 'I'm going on a dragon ride.' It was at that point that I started to feel dizzy.

Maxx noticed right away, though I didn't say anything. "Lizza, what's wrong?"

"Just a bit of trail sickness, I think," I muttered. "It doesn't help that I can't see outside this wagon. Is there any way that I can sit on the back ledge or something?"

"There's no back ledge on this design," the Journeyman said, shaking his head sympathetically. "I think that we can probably tie the back flaps open, if that'll help. Or there''s a seat up front next to the driver; we can see if he'll be okay with you keeping his company for a little while."

"Umm - let's try the back flap," I muttered, finding it hard to concentrate, but knowing that all things being equal, I'd rather stay near Maxx than be out of his sight. So Maxx helped me over to where I could sit cross-legged near the back of the wagon, facing towards its rear, and Aless and Riman got the canvas flaps pulled back and tied to the corners of the wagon frame, so that there was a triangular opening that let me see the trail that we'd just passed over, and the rest of the caravan bringing up the rear.

It was only a few minutes before one of the traders noticed what we were up to and rode up, and I was wondering if he'd castigate us for letting bugs into his wagon or something. But he smiled tiredly. "Somebody got trail sickness?"

"That'd be me, sir," I said, raising my hand. "It doesn't hit if I can see where - well, usually see where I'm going. I guess we'll find out if seeing where I've been does the trick."~~

"Well, just do what you can to not lose your lunch right in the way I'm heading," he muttered, and guided his mount over to the side, so that he wasn't following right behind our wagon.

#

The lead riders of the caravan caught sight of Fort Hold just as the sun was setting, and by the time we got to the Harper Hall quadrangle, the darkness was closing in. A short woman holding a glow-basket hurried down the steps and across the yard to meet us. "Ruathan apprentices?"

"Yes my lady, that's us," Aless answered.

"Harpers and healers both? All accounted for?"

"Indeed, and one trail-weary journeyman on top. Hello again Andraia," Journeyman Riman said to her. "Sorry that we didn't make it earlier."

"Riman? Don't apologize for something that's out of your control," Headwoman Andraia said to him. "Well, come along, one and all - we should go by the Healer's entrance I suppose." She headed off to the side of the yard. "Who all is healercraft?"

"We are," Maxx and I answered at the same time, and young Niklos spoke up too.

"Well, three, that shouldn't be too many for Karalinn to..." Andraia broke off and peered at Maxx and I in the dim glow-light. "Well, don't the two of you look darling together, back there."

I realized just then that she'd noticed how Maxx and I were holding hands. "I - I'm glad you think so, Headwoman," I managed to say without quite tripping over my tongue.

"Will I have to prepare for an apprentices' espousal?"

"No, Headwoman," Maxx said, and I could feel his hand getting warmer. "I told Lizza's father we wouldn't make any plans until after I got my Journeyman's knot."

"That's sensible, healer apprentice," Andraia told him. "What's your name?"

"It's Maxx."

"Oh - Evans' foster son. He told me a lot about you and your sister. Well, it's nice to meet you both, and here's Healer Journeywoman Karalinn to get you settled." I couldn't see much of the journeywoman beyond a slender shape in a forest green tunic. "Three from Ruatha, Karalinn - the lovebirds, and that younger lad in the back."

"Lovebirds?" Karalinn replied as we gathered around her. "I knew that Whitman was sending us a girl without much notice, but a lovestruck lad following her all the way here?"

I laughed. "If anything, I'm following Maxx. He's been an apprentice for Turns, and only suggested a couple sevendays ago that I might have what it takes to be a healer too."

"I see. Well, come on this way." Karalinn led the three of us through a heavy metal door and into a corridor that tunneled under the rocky cliff. "I hope I don't need to mention that we won't tolerate either of you sneaking into the other's dormitory."

"Yes, I assumed as much, Journeywoman," Maxx assured her. "We'll find a way to be content with spending what time we can together during the day-time - in public places, well-chaperoned."

Karalinn burst out laughing. "We're not quite as methody as all that, but it probably wouldn't hurt to toe the line for a sevenday or so, until you get the routine down. Speaking of which - you'll take three meals a day in the great hall with the Harpers, sitting at the apprentice tables. There's no assigned seating, so sit down wherever you find an available spot. There's work detail for two hours after dinner, in the early afternoon, and classes in the morning and late afternoon. Lizza? Do you have a question?"

"Umm, not really." I'd been thrown for a moment by the reference to dinner, and then worked out that they must call the middle meal of the day by that name, instead of 'nooning', possibly because it was heartier than what was served in the evening.

"I'll find you at breakfast tomorrow, and take you to see Journeman Bramahn for your first placement tests, and he'll be telling you more about your schedule after that. Evenings are personal time, except for any assignments that your teachers have given you to complete for class. That's your dormitory up there, Lizza - the door on the left."

Suddenly something else occurred to me. "Is there any way I could get something to eat before settling in for the night, actually? There wasn't much chow on the trail from the Sea Hold."

"Ohh! Sorry, I didn't realize that you rode all that way without a break." Karalinn looked around as if that would help her make her decision."

"Why don't you drop off your luggage and unpack a little while you're here, Lizza?" Maxx suggested. "The good Journeywoman can take us to the boy's apprentice dorm, and..." He ran out of steam a little at this point.

But Karalinn was able to take over for him. "Yes, that's a good plan, Maxx. I'll drop you lads off at your dorms - since you're in different age brackets, and then go by the kitchen to warn whoever's on night hearth duty that there are hungry travellers who'll need a little nibble. The Harpers might beat me there, actually, if they're trail-starved too. Then I'll come back and collect you all in the same order, Lizza first, so that if you each pay attention you'll learn how to get around from place to place. Just don't go in the kitchen door tomorrow morning; but then you can follow your dorm-mates."

"Well, that would be great," I said. "If you don't mind doing so much running around for our sakes."

"Please, I'm happy to," she insisted. "I remember my first seven-day at the Hall, a little girl of eleven Turns, never left my family's cot in the mountains above Bitra, untill the rider came to take me for a Healer's training. I had kind people to help me settle in then, and it's the kind of debt that needs must be repaid onward, not back."

"Thank you, then, Karalinn," Niklos said. "I look forward to the day that I'm experienced enough to be taking on such responsibilities."

"I do too, young man," Karalinn said as she led the way on to my new home. "But two things I should say - one is to beg pardon for not asking your name, and the other is to point out that you should address me by rank - if only to get yourself into the habit."

There were only two other girls in my dorm room, though it held five pallets, and I wondered if there would be other girl apprentices arriving soon. Terrica was Nabolese, had fifteen and a half Turns, and the most recent three here at the Hall, while Garty was of an age with me, born in Igen, and had the tanned skin and bleached golden hair to prove it. She'd only arrived a seven-day before, around the same time that I first went to study with Master Whitman. They were both very friendly and more talkative than I felt after the long day of travelling and getting woken up in the middle of thee night by a sea prowler.

~~But I got some blankets spread over my pallet, and many of my clothes folded up in the press, and took care of a few other things in the private room, and by then Journeywoman Karalinn was waiting for me. I apologized for keeping her waiting, which she said I didn't need to mention, this time, and she took me off to meet Maxx at his new dorm.

He made a big point of kissing me in front of the other guys, as if he wanted to establish that I was off limits. I wasn't wild about being so publicly claimed, but Master Whitman had mentioned that if Maxx and I were obvious about our affections, and Maxx willing to get jealous and possessive about anybody else who tried to court me, it might save me some harassment later on. If this was part of that plan, then I could live with it alright.

And soon, we were sitting around a table in the corner of the big dining Hall, along with Niklos and the Ruathan harper apprentices, and two new arrivals from Tillek who'd also gotten to the Hall too late for dinner, and a few journeymen harpers. Apparently the kitchen staff had decided that there were too many of us to have underfoot in their space, and brought out a few things to eat for us. As I munched on the berry pie, I wondered if it would be any better hot out of the oven, or if I'd be missing the product of my Father's craft for the whole time I was studying at Healer Hall.

"So, Aless, how much do you miss your darling Izabella already?" one of his fellow harper apprentices teased him. It was at that point that I realized I'd been so busy with the excitement of the caravan rolling out from the Sea Hold that I'd paid no attention at all to Aless' and Izabella's goodbye, before she headed back with her foster parents for Ruatha. They should be back home by this point, certainly.

"Quite a bit," Aless muttered quietly. "But we've been doing what we could to get ready for this day. It'd probably have been worse if we'd really known each other for Turns and Turns, instead of just a few sevendays."

"I'm not so sure about that," Ruttan, one of the Tillek lads said. "Then, you've got Turns and Turns of memories to look back on and console yourself with. I don't think I'd have wanted to leave Derrine only a few sevendays after getting to know her."

This distracted everybody from Aless' situation, as all of the Ruathans wanted to know more about Ruttan and Derrine.

Maxx walked me back to my dormitory. "Do you think that we can meet for a long-ish moment before breakfast tomorrow?" he asked. "Out in the yard?"

"Umm." I thought about that. "I'll try, but I'm not sure how long it'll take to get ready to go once I'm up, or when I'll wake up. We've got placement tests right after breakfast, remember, and I want to do as well as I can, even if we probably won't have any classes together anyway. So..."

"I'll look for you, and tell myself not to be disappointed if you don't make it," Maxx said, and gave me another quick kiss. "Nothing to make a big harvest of tears from."

"Okay." I kissed him back. "Do you want to come in and meet my dorm-mates? Just quickly - you've shown me off to the guys, and I think that they'll be impressed with my... hmm. Just what can I call you, Maxx? Are you my suitor? It sounds so old-fashioned and high-rank."

"You want old-fashioned?" Maxx laughed. "How about calling me your swain?"

I shook my head, went into the room, and just called him Maxx. But he introduced himself as my swain.

#

I didn't meet Maxx in the quadrangle courtyard before breakfast today. Everything went wrong - I slept late, even though Terrica tried to get me to wake up, and so I had three dorm-mates in line ahead of me for the private room - and surprised that I had a third dorm-mate at all, but apparently she'd arrived in the middle of the night on dragon-back from Benden Hold.

So, after all that, I only got to the dining hall after the apprentices were let in to find seats, and kept looking around for Maxx. It turned out that he'd been looking for me before sitting down either - and when we found each other, we couldn't find any spot where we could sit next to each other, across from each other, or even fairly close to each other. When the journeyman on order duty told us to stop dawdling and just sit down, we ended up at the same long table, but nearly opposite ends, and I found myself surrounded by girls in fancy Gather dresses - at least, I'd only be wearing a costume so elaborate and delicate on a Gather day, but since this wasn't even a rest day, I had to assume that they had different criteria for what to wear on what day.

It turns out that they were paying students at the Harper Hall - not apprentices chosen by the craft Masters, but some relative had offered to pay the Harpers in marks in exchange for teaching them musical skills. Most of them thought this was a good idea because they hoped that it would help them attract a good spouse, but a few were espoused already. I didn't want to keep prying at them all through the meal, though it was a facet of the Harper Hall that I hadn't thought of before, and they had questions about Maxx and I too. I had to remember to put at least as much time towards eating as chatting.

Which wasn't on account of the cooking - it was very different from the pastry-based breakfast that I was familiar with from Ruatha, whether up in the family Klah Lounge or down in the lower caverns. There were hot griddle cakes with sweet syrup, and greasy sausages that you could cut up and dunk in a sour sauce, and fresh fruit and grilled roots and other vegetables. It was all delicious.

After the meal was done, the order journeyman went up to a podium near the Master's table, and told a few apprentices that they should be reporting to such-and-such with the morning bell. I kept listening for my name or Maxx's, wondering if he'd repeat the instructions that we were to go with Journeywoman Karalinn, but that wasn't mentioned, so I assumed that this might be just for last minute changes and people who hadn't already been given the necessary details. The journeyman then introduced Masterharper Woryel, and Masterhealer Oganach, who each welcomed the new apprentices to the Halls - again. That had become a running joke, apparently, that so many newcomers were staggering in a few at a time that they were giving welcome speeches at every opportunity.

Soon, everybody was dismissed, and I went over to stand close to Maxx. Karalinn got up from one of the journeyman's tables and waved us over, along with several other apprentices in Healer green. I wondered how frequently they were doing placement tests for newly arrived Healer students.

There were only seven of us actually when Karalinn led us into the classroom, which had two deeply set windows that each looked out across the valley meadow towards Fort Hold. "Okay, it looks like there's a slight change in plans, and Brahmin is needed elsewhere, so I'll be conducting your placement tests," she announced. "Get a quill, ink, and one of the spare hides from the sideboard and then take a desk. Conserve space - you won't get a second hide. There are twenty questions in this part of the testing, and if I can't read your writing, I will assume the worst."

That part wasn't so bad. I was fairly comfortable with making notations and not using up too much hide, and all of the questions were in fields that Master Whitman had covered before we left Ruatha, though in many of them I wasn't quite sure how to phrase my answer. Then, the journeywoman called us each up for an oral examination, during which every apprentice but the one being addressed was under strict orders to remain silent.

The testing took several hours to finish, and then Karalinn told us that we had half an hour free until dinner time. Maxx took my hand and led the way down the corridor, around a few turns, and out into the meadow, a little way from the quadrangle. I kissed him, but he started laughing in the middle of it. "What's so funny?" I asked him.

"It's not funny, just... I don't know, I'm so happy that we're both here, and you did _great_! I know that you're brilliant, but seriously, honey, I could hardly believe some of the answers that you gave."

"Really?" I shook my head. "I was terrified, and I don't think I did that amazing. I mean, I had to pass entirely seven or eight times during the oral, and..."

"Yeah, but that was the Journeyman finding your level, asking questions from the whole apprentice curriculum - even though you told her that you've only been studying for a few sevendays, she had to do it by the book." He kissed me again. "I can't wait to see how well you'll be doing once you actually have been studying Healercraft for Turns!"

"Yeah, that'll be something," I muttered, though I wasn't sure about all this for some reason. Being able to spend time with Maxx in semi-privacy was nice, though it wasn't as private as I'd hoped. A few beefy fosterlings came over along the path from Fort Hold, and they whistled and jeered at both of us a little. I could tell that Maxx was mad, but it didn't really seem like a good idea for him to make a big deal, as they were both physically more imposing and higher-ranked than he was. We just slipped through the quadrangle doors ahead of them and blended in with the other apprentices. The fosterlings went right up to the dining room doors and were allowed in, though they weren't letting apprentices in yet. I had to wonder what these boys were even doing over at the Hall.

Dinner was great, and again fancier than I had expected, roast ovine and baked tubers and greens and fresh bread. Maxx and I were able to sit together, and Aless and Ruttan and Niklos and some of the other Ruathan apprentices found us. I looked around for the fosterlings, and for the girls I'd been sitting with that morning, but couldn't see either.

Among the announcements at the end of dinner was some kind of lottery for which work detail groups had been assigned which chores. Karalinn had mentioned that we'd be on work detail, but hadn't given us group numbers, so that confused me. Should we find her again and ask? Or were we off free until our numbers were assigned?

And then, there was another announcement that caught my attention - Karalinn came to the podium and announced the placements of the new Healer apprentices. I hadn't realized that this was going to be a public announcement. There were three classes in each year, it seemed, and Maxx got placed in fourth year, top class. That meant that he might be walking the tables in only four more months or so! I squeezed his hand, so proud.

And I wasn't even listening for a bit, because suddenly Maxx was saying that he was so proud of **me**, and hadn't he told me that I did well on my oral exam? "Wait a second - what did I get?" I asked him. "Middle class?" It hardly seemed likely that I'd placed in the top class of first year apprentices, with students who had been learning the Healercraft for two or three seasons.

"Top class - of second year," Niklos muttered. "It seems your with me, my little serving drudge."

Oh, no... this wasn't good at all! I'd be with the second year apprentices? Karalinn must have made a mistake, confusing my last-minute cramming with some kind of real proficiency - but there wasn't any way I could tell her that, was there? How could I manage? Wouldn't all of my new classmates resent me when they found out how recently Master Whitman had taken me on?

Work detail was the least of my problems now.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, Lizza, guess what?" I tried not to jump obviously and turned around, smiling when I saw Jaymee, who's around my age and works in the Hall kitchens.

"Umm - we're having wherry for dinner again tomorrow?" I ventured.

"No... well, actually, I'm not completely sure, but I think it's going to be herdbeast. But my news about the noon meal has to do with something other than the food."

"Okay, that's fine." Jaymee's actually a bit of a gossip, and I wasn't entirely feeling in the mood to get excited about who was friends with whom or the latest maneuvering on chore duty groups.

"You'll be excited," she sing-songed off-key, and a passing Harper journeyman shot her an offended look.

"Okay, okay," I said, turning a corner towards my dormitory - I wanted to get changed before supper, as the pharmacy lesson had been rather messy. "So what else is going on at dinner tomorrow?"

"Well, there'll be three fourth-year Healer apprentices walking the tables."

It took me a moment to place that reference - it was the Crafter tradition of promotion. If a journeyman was becoming a master, or an apprentice a journeyman, then there was a production of them walking to an empty new seat at the appropriate table. And now that I knew this much, there was an obvious answer to why Jaymee thought that it would be of particular interest to me - but I still had just enough of my bad mood left that I didn't want to jump to the conclusion and possibly fall for a joke that Jaymee was playing on me. "Okay, so is Maxx one of them?"

"Well, yes, of course, Lizza. I thought that you'd be happy to hear it."

Not much of my bad mood was left except for remorse at this point. "Yes, of course I'm happy for him, Jaymee - and thank you so much for coming to tell me." And being happy on Maxx's behalf wasn't all of the truth - his parents had said that he didn't want the two of us to become seriously involved until he'd earned his Journeyman's rank, so just what did this news mean for our relationship? Would Maxx want to set a date for an Espousal ceremony? I wanted to be with Maxx for the rest of my life, but at the same time it was a bit of a shock to think about being so close to the rest of our lives.

"You're so very welcome. Don't let on that I was the one to tell you." Jaymee beamed, made a wave, and then rushed off as quickly as she came.

#

I only just got the last table at Maxx's table in the dining hall at supper that night. We usually end up sitting with some of his friends among the fourth-year Healer apprentices, who don't seem to mind my joining their company, whereas we unintentionally created a bit more friction trying to include Maxx close to my classmates in the second-year class. But he can't really hold a seat for me if somebody else really wants to sit there, so I try to not be rushing in at the last moment.

Maxx kissed my cheek and the boy next to him on the other side, Tatran, made a comment about how nice it can be to always be around two young Healers in love. The rest of the guys laughed, and by the time the porcine pie is delivered to be sliced up and served out onto our plates, I've sensed that everybody is in a reasonably good mood, and not just a generally vague kind of 'goodness', but a slightly tense excitement. So I smiled at all of them and made my own foray into the conversation when there was an opening pause.

"I heard a bit of interesting news just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, really?" Tatran said. "Did the grapevine take that long to reach the second-years? Our classrooms have been buzzing since morning."

That deflated my gambit, and I fell silently to my slice of pie, listening to the apprentices talk about who would be picked for walking the tables. As I kept listening, it became clear to me that Jaymee had told me something that they either didn't know or didn't believe - that Maxx was going to be one of the ones to get his journeyman's knot. I tried to catch his eye, to see if he was feeling confident, to signal the good tidings to him alone, but he was paying close attention to something that Umlau, sitting opposide from Tatran, was saying about how all three new journeymen would be picked out of the apprentices who had more experience at the Hall than the two sevendays since the apprentices had been called in from Holds all across the continent. So I stroked his arm sweetly - and another of those strange moments came when our thoughts seemed to touch. I tried not to visibly jump in my chair, and Maxx wasn't exactly subtle about the way he turned around to look at me, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he understood what Jaymee had told me and what I was hoping for, and he was smiling. All of a sudden, I couldn't wait for supper to be over.

#

"I want to stay in tonight," I told Maxx, as soon as we had left the dining hall. "Celebrate alone with you."

"Yeah, I do too," he said, bending down to kiss me. "But maybe it would be better if we don't change our plans. There'll be plenty of time to celebrate after it's official, and it would be unseemly to let anyone know ahead of time, or to let them guess that we know."

"Oh, phoo for unseemly," I muttered. "Do we even have plans for tonight?"

"Yeah, don't you remember? Aless invited us both to come over and play Dragon Poker with the Harper boys." He shrugged.

"Right." I stopped to consider this retrieved piece of information again. I'd changed into a nice tunic before dinner, so that would definitely do for spending the evening over in the Harper Hall apprentice dormitories. Maxx looked a bit less presentable, and I couldn't immediately remember what class he had last thing in the afternoon. "Do you want to stop in at your dorm room first?"

He peered down at his forest green shirt and trousers. "Yeah, that'd be good." So I led the way towards his quarters - but going the back way through the Hall, instead of using the more-travelled wide corridors.

"So - do you think that your parents would allow us to declare a pact as soon as you've walked the tables?" I asked him wistfully.

"I certainly intend to ask them soon," Maxx replied after a moment, with a fond smile. "There's a Fort gather the day after tomorrow; partly to give family an opportunity to come here and celebrate their new young journeymen. Mother and Father are already planning to come - they didn't say, but I think that they had hopes for my promotion so soon." He sighed happily. "Journeymen who have promised themselves to be espoused can ask to room together with their beloveds. Not alone together - we'd have to share the room with another couple, most likely, until the actual espousal. But..."

"Yeah," I said. I knew all the same rules as Maxx did by this point, but loved to hear him dream out loud. "At least we wouldn't have to kiss goodnight and stay apart until morning."

"When we get that far," Maxx agreed, and then his head jerked slightly down in my direction. "What about **your** parents, Lizza? They'd need to approve of the pact, too. Will they be here for the gather?"

"Oh." I hadn't thought about that, and since I hadn't remembered about the gather this seven-day before Maxx mentioned, I doubted that there had been anything about it in my last letter from Mother. Still... "If she's found out about it, or will, then Mother will find a way to come. Father - probably not, unless he's gotten organized well enough in advance to set up a stall.

Maxx chuckled. "Always the salesman, making decisions in terms of marks?"

I felt my pace falter, because I didn't really like thinking of Father in those terms, but there was some truth to it. The prices in the Klah lounge weren't high, but he did good business nearly every day... and come to think of it, I wasn't sure how high his expenses were. Did he have to pay Lord Jerood a rental for using the space? Or for the fact that many of his workers, like Mari and my mother, were considered contributing citizens of Ruath Hold, and thus entitled to room and board without having to pay for it in their own marks?

Still, whatever my Father's outgoing marks, it suddenly hit me that he was in all likelihood quite a rich man in those terms. What was he saving up for? I had a sudden mental picture of him buying me a small Hold on my nineteenth birthing-day - well, or presenting it to me, along with the marks that it would take to take Hold. (You can't buy a Hold, or any land on Pern, for marks - Harper Evans told me that once. You can pay the old Holder to let you move in, you can pay him to leave if he wants to take the marks for that, but you still have to demonstrate that you can hold for yourself.)

I got about that far before realizing that Maxx was looking a bit concerned at the way that I'd just gone off into my own little Pern. "Umm... I think that Father is just happiest when he's baking," I said, which wasn't the whole truth, but at least it got me back to the conversation that we'd left behind.

Maxx smiled and led the way on to his room, which wasn't far.

#

When we got close to the third-year Harper apprentice dormitory, Maxx and I could hear voices engaged in argument. Passing through the doorway revealed Aless standing toe to toe with two bigger apprentices, near the circular table where the cards and snack cakes were sitting askew. On the other side of the table stood - it was the singer girl who I'd seen back up in Plateau, sevendays back, before we went up to the Weyr. I couldn't place her name just at that moment, but had seen her around every now and then since coming to Healer Hall, as she was studying with the Harpers when she wasn't off performing at different Holds.

But I hadn't expected to see her here tonight, and she looked upset. Not that Aless or the other harper boys were the picture of calm, but they were more just angry than - than humiliated and hurt, for all that the light-haired boy had a big bruise coming purple already under one of his eyes.

"What's going on here?" Maxx asked, with as much authority as he could muster.

The bruised boy spoke first. "He struck me, Maxx." He pointed at Aless. "Harpers of any rank are strictly forbidden to fight among themselves, and I did nothing to provoke him."

"Not directly, perhaps," Aless said dryly. "What you were doing to Tessa was doubtlessly provocative, and as neither you nor your friend seemed interested in respecting her or her refusals, I felt that I was within my rights to take the young lady's part."

"Oh, no," I muttered. Journeyman Evans' warnings about what kind of treatment I could expect if I went to the Hall as a harper apprentice, (and a pretty girl,) came back to me. I hadn't realized that other young ladies would be in the same kind of danger. But Aless was definitely the kind of guy who wouldn't stand for such things - and possibly get himself into more trouble with his instinctive reaction.

I walked around the table towards Tessa. "Are - are you okay? Do you need to go to a Healer's office, or..."

"I'm fine," she muttered, blushing. "I don't want to claim injury over this."

"Well, I'm claiming injury," the bruised boy insisted, again pointing at Aless as if any of us had doubts over who he felt had hurt him.

"Please, take his part," I muttered to Tessa, quietly that the boys would probably not hear the details of my words. "As he took yours. Fair's fair." If Tess refused to take Aless' part against the boy who had been molesting her, then Aless could be in a lot of trouble for attacking another apprentice.

Tess looked over at Aless and sighed. "Calfin, call it quits. Nobody wants this whole thing to get more attention."

Colfin looked at her and considered what she wasn't saying. If he pursued his claim against Aless, would Tessa come forward? As Tessa had implied, she didn't want to have to go on the record against him, and he didn't want that kind of trouble either.

"Okay, okay, it's quits. Just a couple boys rasslin' around, and Aless got in a lucky elbow," he finally muttered, and managed a cocky smile. "So come on, let's all quit foolin' and deal out the cards."

"Umm - I'm not so sure that I'm in the mood for Dragon Poker all of a sudden," I said.

Colfin's friend shot me a hard stare. "Come on, don't be like that. If it's quits, then we're all friends, and nobody should have a problem sitting down and playing cards together. Or do you really want us to believe that you're too good for Dragon Poker with my friend and me?"

I looked over at Maxx, and he shrugged. I wasn't wild about the thought of being friends with Colfin, but I didn't really want to generate more bad feeling and possibly upset the deal that would keep Aless out of trouble with his teachers. "Okay, then, come on." I went back around the table and caught Aless' arm and Max's in one hand each. I really wanted to have them next to me now.

It wasn't long before Colfin's friend, Leighder, had dealt out five cards for each of us, I organized my hand and couldn't remember for the life of me if a weyrleader and a journeyman made two of a kind or not. And of course, that's the kind of thing that you can't ask without giving away what you've got. When I played with my parents and Mari and her mother, somebody always left a bit of hide on the table with all of the ranks on them. There was no reminder here.

And of course, I was the second to bet. Aless started with a thirty-second mark - the lowest possible bet, same as ante. "Just give me a moment." In the weyr suit, the weyrwoman was high, and the weyrleader second. In the crafter suit, the master was high, and...

"Hey, we came here to play, not just sit and think to ourselves, Lizza," Colfin chortled. "See the bet, or pass."

"Or raise it," Leighder added,.snickering. "If you've got the marks for it."

"I'll see," I said, having finished my thinking and confirmed that I did indeed have a good pair to draw to. I slipped a thirty-second mark into the center of the table.

Maxx folded, and Tessa saw the bet as well, so it was a thirty-second mark to Colfin. "Raise," he said, putting an eighth mark into the center of the table.

"Wait a second," I said. "You can only raise by the amount bet so far. You can't bet more than a sixteenth - one thirty-second to match, and one to raise."

"Nuh-uh," Leighder put in, grinning. "There's three thirty-seconds bet so far." He pointed at Aless, me, and Tessa in turn. "So he can raise to match all of them, plus seeing the bet. That makes an eighth."

I looked around, to see if anybody would object to this. It would change the game and how quickly a pot could become high-stakes based on a low starting bet. Maxx seemed uncertain, but Tessa and Aless were nodding their heads slowly. It seemed that this was how dragon poker was bet among harpers, and we were on the harper side of the hall now. (I didn't even know if healers played cards on their side of the hall.)

I was obsessing over the contents of my pile of marks more than the cards through the rest of the hand. I saw Colfin's bet, which was enough to get me to the draw, and I didn't get any help for my pair. Tessa opened up with a quarter-mark bet after the draw, and Colfin re-raised, so I folded my hand. Tessa ended up winning the hand with a trio of fours.

Over the next few hands, I managed to relax and enjoy the evening. I still didn't really like Colfin or Leighder, but I didn't want to let them ruin the game.

The evening was wearing on, and I picked up a collection of single low cards, not even grouped closely enough to make four to a straight. Maxx passed, and I impatiently did the same, stifling the urge to fold before anybody else had bet. If everybody passed, I'd get my ante back at least.

"So, I can't open the bet on anything more than a thirty-second, right?" Tessa said. She and Aless had switched chairs after taking a break, and I hadn't wanted to raise an objection to the agreement they made.

Colfin shrugged. "I don't have a problem with that. Dealer's prerogative?"

"No," Aless interrupted before Leighder could chime in. "We have to vote on changing the betting rules before the deal. Sorry, Tessa."

"Okay." Tessa shrugged and put a thirty-second mark in. Aless folded.

"Meddler," Colfin muttered, and shot a nasty look at Aless, as if he shouldn't have spoken up about the betting if he wasn't going to see at the lowest possible bet anyway. Colfin bet a sixteenth, and Leighder bet up to an eighth. Tessa thought about it for a long time, took out her thirty-second and replaces it with a quarter mark - the biggest bet that we'd seen in the game so far, and we hadn't even had the draw yet.

Colfin saw the bet without hesitation, and Leighder considered for a few seconds before seeing as well. Tessa stood pat, and Leighder dealt one hand to Colfin, and two to himself.

Then the betting was fast and furious again. It was only a few rounds before Tess had five marks in the pot, which was most of her available funds. Colfin saw. Leighder hesitated. "I... I hadn't really expected to..."

"Do you have the marks to see the bet, or not?" Colfin asked. "Here with you, at the table?"

"Well, yes."

"Then you have to bet them or fold," Colfin said. "No side pots until you're absolutely tapped out and all-in."

"Okay." Leighder matched the bet. "Showdown, my dear."

Tessa turned over her card - three fives, and a warder and a weyrling, which made another pair - a full Hold. A really good hand, and Tessa had been dealt it straight off, since she'd stayed pat at the draw. No wonder she'd wanted to bet it up.

"I'm so sorry," Colfin said, with a grin that didn't look sorry at all. He laid down the six, seven, eight, nine, and ten of hammers - a flush straight. That bet everything but a higher one, including full holds.

"Quite a hand," Leighder said regretfully, showing his hand, with three large dragon cards - all aces. Also a fairly good hand, but not a match for either of the others. Colfin must have drawn one card to finish his flush straight, and Leighder had tried drawing two cards to the trio, hoping for a pair, or a wild harper, which could have given him four aces.

"Okay, I guess that's enough for the evening," Aless muttered. "Congratulations on your big win, Colfin, and sorry for your losses, Tessa, Leighder."

"I hope that you didn't risk too much," I said to Tessa.

"No, that's alright. It's just marks, and nobody's life depended on them." But she shot a bleak look at Colfin, and also Leighder, before she left. Leighder appeared to be in high spirits himself - maybe he hoped that his friend would spend some of the winnings on something that he could enjoy as well.

Aless told everybody that he'd clean up, and Maxx hurried me away back to the healer dormitories. "I don't like either of those harper boys," I muttered once we were out of immediate range. "I'm not sure if they're really Aless' friends, but..."

"No, I don't think they are anymore, at least," Maxx said. "He'd never forgive somebody for forcing a girl - any more than I do. But we'll need to bide our time, and there's other things to focus on in the meantime."

I remembered the good news of just a few hours before, and smiled. "Can you come inside for a few minutes?"

Maxx considered. "Only if your roommates aren't in, I think."

"Ahh, yes. All right."

Unfortunately, both of the other girls were in my shared dormitory room, so Maxx just kissed me goodbye outside and poked his head to say hello and goodnight to the others. I found myself wondering if they'd have to find a new third girl for the room, if I was able to move out and share a foursome for two pacted couples with Maxx.

#

Breakfast and morning classes seemed to pass by in a happy rush, and not to crawl by as I waited for the big noon meal and the ceremony of walking the tables. When I got into the dining hall, I saw that Maxx was at a different table from usual with the fourth-year apprentices, and there were no free seats too close to him, so I picked a seat closer to the Master's table, figuring that at least I could get a good view of him walking over to the other side of the hall. And then I spotted an unfamiliar figure sitting at the Master's table.

A rider wearing fresh leathers and the shoulder knots of a bronze rider and wingleader. And not just any wingleader.

It was D'Peerce!

What was he doing here? I hadn't seen him since leaving the Weyr, and counted myself quite lucky for that. Any other rider being her I could pass of as a coincidence, but the one who had told me that he was hunting for mysterious strangers and knew that I could find one?

Dinner seemed to take forever to crawl by, but I wasn't paying attention to much other than D'Peerce, and though he wasn't making it obvious to anybody else, I could tell that he was watching me too. After the cheese balls and the thick slices of roast with tubers and greens and bread pudding and gravy, Masterhealer Wheeler stood up, and suddenly the entire hall fell silent. He started to speak, and I tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but couldn't manage to make the sentences add up into words. I hated D'Peerce for coming here and ruining this moment. I wanted to be so happy for Maxx, but what I felt for him in that moment was fear.

I almost stood up and cheered the first name that Wheeler called, but realized that it wasn't Maxx, and people might find it a bit strange if I showed that much enthusiasm for a boy from South Benden. Maybe Jaymee had bad information, or something had changed. What if Maxx's name wasn't called?

Why was D'Peerce here? He had to be following me, and it wouldn't take much asking for him to find out that Maxx had also come from Ruatha, and that the two of us were closer than friends. Would that be enough to make him suspect Maxx?

"Walk, Journeyman Maxx! Walk, Journeyman Maxx!" Maxx was up, and he was walking, and a crazy thought occured to me. D'Peerce had to think that I was hiding the identity of the mysterious stranger from him - so would making it clear that I wasn't hiding Maxx from him be enough to throw suspicion away from him? I could only try it. So just as Maxx was passing by, I jumped out of my chair, whooping like a maniac, throwing my arms around him and kissing him hard on the lips. He kind of tried to mumble a surprised protest past me, but didn't push me away. I drowned into his arms for a long moment before suddenly realizing what I had done. I withdrew just a bit, nervously, and realized that absolutely everybody in the Hall was looking at us now - including all the Masters.

"Yes, I think I understand how excited you are about your friend's new rank, Apprentice Lizza," Wheeler said. "But that sort of congratulations... well, to say the least, it's not appropriate for this venue." Several apprentices near me snickered, and so I sat down as quickly as I could and let Maxx finish his walk over to the apprentice tables. I realized belatedly that Journeywoman Karalinn was escorting Maxx to his new place - well, that was nice. I knew that I didn't have to worry about Karalinn - she was Maxx's friend and mentor, nothing more.

But I was sure that I hadn't seen the last of D'Peerce.

#

It was both relieving and anti-climactic to go back to afternoon classes after the big noon ceremony. There was the ordinary excitement of it being rest day tomorow, (and a Fort Hold gather day, on top of that,) and added to that, people talking about the three apprentices who'd walked the tables, speculating wildly about if this would trickle down into any early openings in the third-year class. By an hour into the session, Master Twanes couldn't keep us in character for our role-playing clinical practice, which is normally fun - some of us pretend to be patients coming to see the healer, and the point of the exercise is to diagnose the true problem based on the symptoms given and prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Niklos came up to me after we were finally let out of class. "So, are you throwing a party for Journeyman Maxx tonight?"

I was thrown by the question for a moment, and then felt foolish. Maxx and I had been so wrapped up in pretending that we hadn't heard the news before dinner, and wondering if it was actually true, that we hadn't really talked about anything like this, but of course Maxx deserved a celebration with his friends who were still apprentices, and I'd have started to plan it already - if I hadn't been unnerved by D'Peerce's showing up at the Hall for the table-walking ceremony. I was also a little preoccupied all afternoon with whether the rider had left or if he was still skulking around the Hall somewhere.

"Okay, yeah, we should definitely have a celebration for Maxx, but..." I was starting to say that it should just be a small gathering of friends, but suddenly that reminded me of the small gathering that we'd had over in the Harper third-year dormitory last night, and I really didn't want to do anything that would remind Maxx or myself of that. So... "We shouldn't split up the parties, actually - I know that Maxx is friends with lots of the other apprentices..." I racked my brain to think of the other two apprentices who had walked the table. To my surprise, I found one of them. "Peffer and..."

"And Twits," Niklos said, chuckling a little. "Okay, well - we should probably go talk to the fourth-year apprentice healers, and see what they already have in mind in terms of party night."

"Yeah, come on," I said. "Let's go."

We found a few friends of Twits first, and they were planning to take him over to Fort Hold and have a party for him there, but also liked the idea of including Maxx and Peffer and their friends too.

"Do you think that we can all go to Fort without any of the Masters or senior Journeymen stopping the whole deal?" Niklos asked.

"I don't think that they'll raise any problem tonight," one of the fourth-years said - I couldn't remember his name, but knew that he'd actually been studying at the Healer Hall since he was first apprenticed. "Special occasion and all that."

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" I asked, and thought of something. "There's a craft-trained Journeyman Baker in the Fort Hold lower caverns, isn't there?"

"Yes, I think so," Niklos said. "Do you want to get some treats for us?"

"Yeah, I can do that," I said. I'd heard Father refer to Journeman... Journeyman Willem, that was the name. I'd know what to ask for, and maybe dropping my Father's name would get us a little bit further. "I've got some marks still after Dragon Poker last night... can anyone else help with the funding?"

The fourth-years traded a look, and one of them dug into a pocket and passed me three half-marks and a few quarters and eighths. "You'd better get my mark's worth for this."

"Count on it," I said. I'd be spending at least that many of my own marks too, for Maxx's sake, and that should be enough.

#

The party was amazing. Somebody managed to get permission for us to use a small banquet hall on the second level of Fort Hold for free - as the Hold's gift for the new Journeymen healers. And apprentices bought beer and little finger meats and that was all it really took to keep the celebration going.

"I can't believe that you put all this together for me," Maxx muttered when he first saw me, as if somebody had told me that I'd arranged everything without any help from the other apprentices.

"Well, we all wanted to do something special for you Journeymen," I teased him. "Do you want a brew?"

"Oh, no." A flash of panic came over his face, and I remembered that even though the kids had been offered beer and wine up at the Hatching feast, Maxx, Izabella, and Mechell had all avoided it. Was there something about strangers that alcohol affected them differently? If so, I should bury that thought very deeply except for the notion that Maxx didn't want to drink. We couldn't let the riders know that beer was their perfect weapon for finding the strangers with.

So, Maxx quickly excused himself and went off to find some water or fruit juice to drink, and I found myself staring in the direction of the door. And after a minute of that, a figure in riding leathers passed by. D'Peerce! Again? Even though he didn't slow down or glance in the direction of the banquet hall, I shook slightly with panic. How had he found out that we were in Fort Hold tonight? How close was the hunter circling?

"What's wrong?" Maxx muttered as he came close to me. I realized that he might have been too distracted at dinner to even notice D'Peerce.

I leaned in close to him, and he bent down slightly so that I could whisper in his ear, as if it were an endearment. "D'Peerce is here - the rider who came to Ruatha the day that you - helped me. He was at the Harper Hall for dinner, and he was just passing by in the hallway outside."

"Ahh." Max ran a few fingers through my hair and made a soothing, hssh sound. "It'll be okay. We'll be okay, no matter what."

I wasn't sure that I believed that, but it was nice of him to try to reassure me.

#

Half a wing of dragons landed in the meadow past the gather square in the morning, and I hid myself away in my room and kept reading the skins on the approach to diagnosis. I was starting to wonder about poking my head out and going to look for Maxx, wondering if he wanted to scrounge dinner in the Hall or go down to gather, when Terrica poked her head in. "Oh, Lizza, you're in here after all."

"Well, yes, why? Is somebody looking for me?"

"Half a dozen people, if you're talking about the errand girls like me," she confessed with a giggle. "All of whom volunteered to track you down on behalf of your parents."

"They're here?" I said, sitting up so quickly that the hides slid off my bed, and Terrica caught them. "Wait a second, when did..." And then the truth hit me. "Did they ride to Fort on dragon-back?"

"Yes," Terrica answered. "I'm not sure how many dragons went to Ruatha earlier this morning, but your new Journeyman's parents came with them, and at least three others." I quickly checked my Gather outfit, offered Terrica a smile and a wave, and rushed out of the room, heading towards the main hall and the quadrangle doors.

It took a while, and asking a few other apprentices, before I actually found my parents, sitting in one of the empty lesson rooms on ground level. Mother shouted out my name as I stepped inside and got up to wrap her arms around me. "It's so good to see you again, my girl, my not-so-little Lizza. How are you doing in your classes?"

"I'm keeping up alright," I admitted. "There hasn't been too much blood to worry about so far."

"I'm so proud of you for your placements, still," Father said, with a big smile, offering his hand for me to shake. I did, and he used my arm to pull me down toward a third chair. "My girl, in with the upper second year apprentices after a sevenday with Whitman. Sorry, it was two sevendays before you got to the Hall, wasn't it?"

"Nearly," I admitted with a smile. "My classmates have been great about it, actually - I work hard in every class, and I guess they respect me for it. But I think some of the middle and lower second-years are jealous. There've been a few mean tricks. Nothing that I can't deal with."

"That's good," Mother said, taking her chair again. "So, you're being treated well? I mean, we talked about how they treated girls here, when you were making your choice to qualify with Whitman. Maxx is protecting you?"

I thought about that. "Actually, I'm not sure if Maxx has had to." I felt a flash of perverse disappointment that I hadn't had to deal with any harassment since I got to the Halls at all, as if that undermined my femininity. Most of the male apprentices had treated me as 'just one of the guys', and those who'd paid me any compliments or flirted had done so in a very polite and cautious way. But there was probably an 'honor among men' thing going on because they knew that Maxx and I were together - and Maxx's love and passion was all the validation I really needed, wasn't it? "He's probably helped a little just because the word's spread that I'm spoken for - and everybody's been very respectful to me in that respect. Some of the girls aren't so lucky - Aless is friends with a soloist singer, I think, and - and one of the other Harper apprentices tried to force himself on her before our card game "

I hadn't meant to tell my parents anything about the game with Tessa, but it just all sort of came pouring out of me, from that first moment where Maxx and I showed up and Aless and Colfin had been on the point of a no strikes barred fight.

"I - I know that Aless might get in trouble, because he was the one who punched Colfin," I said, trying to keep from sobbing as I relived that moment in my mind. "But Tessa... I don't really know her at all, but I have sympathy for her, and Colfin's just got it in for her..."

Suddenly something connected. "The last hand of the night! Everything worked out too perfectly - Leighder and Colfin were in on it together, cheating with a cold deck, and they targeted Tessa. The rest of us were dealt garbage, to take us out of the betting before the draw. Leighder dealt, and he was setting Colfin up, both of them raising the limits to get Tess at her limit before she could get suspicious."

"Well, there'd be precious little chance of proving that now, without a second deck of cards," Father said. "But you might well be right. **Don't** play poker with either of them again."

"I won't, Father," I said. "But about Tessa..."

"A girl apprentice should not have to endure such treatment to learn a craft," Father said. "Especially not one gifted with the voice to be a soloist. But we cannot be hasty and indiscrete about attempting to better her situation. I hope that you would not object if I attempted to fathom the correct person at the Harper Hall to bring Aless' secret to?"

I took a breath. "Yes, I trust you, Father. And I know that Aless will, too - but I must tell him that you know."

"Of course," Mother said. "So, once you've composed yourself, should we proceed on to the Gather? Maxx and his parents have gone ahead, I think, though he wanted to wait on you."

"Yes, in a few minutes," I said. "Who else has come from Ruatha? What about Mari and Izabella?"

"I - Izabella wanted to come and see Aless," Father said. "But she's taking out her first pleasure cruise today."

"Oh, good for her." I smiled, finding it hard to believe that so much had happened back in Ruatha over the past two sevendays.

"And Mari is still hoping to reach Fort Hold today, or tonight," Mother said. "The caravan has run into a few difficulties out from the Sea Hold. Amana is here, to see you as much as anybody else, and Master Whitman and his spouse of course."

"Right." I nodded, spent a few minutes trying to figure out when Mari's caravan had last been by the Healer Hall, then shrugged it off. "So - one more question before we go, and it's a big one."

Father nodded, and I waited, letting the tension build. "Does this have something to do with Maxx's new rank?" Mother asked.

"Yes," I admitted, mock-scowling at her for blowing the big surprise. "You didn't ever say anything very specific about a timeline, just that we could talk about Maxx and I making a formal pact once - well, 'once either of us makes journeyman' was the phrasing at least once, though I don't think anybody doubted that he'd be recognized at that rank first, considering his head start of apprenticeship with Master Whitman. But anyway, he's a journeyman now, and we're talking."

Mother and Father exchanged a look. "Yes, we are. I'm happy that you like Maxx so much, and that the two of you are starting to make plans for your lives. But - but you still haven't really known him for that long, and..." She trailed off awkwardly at this point.

But Father looked at me cannily. "Are the two of you really in a hurry to be spouses, or is it just the status of being a pacted couple that concerns you for the time being?"

I had to think about that for a long moment. "I... at the heart of it, I want to be a little closer to Maxx, to have an opportunity to get to know him a little more. I - I guess I had unrealistic expectations about coming to Healer Hall - though I'm certainly happier to be here than if we were seperated by all the distance between Fort and Ruatha. But - there's so many apprentices all over the place here, and so much going on, that it seems like we - well, we spend a fair amount of time together, but almost always in big groups. We don't have a place to be ourselves, you know?"

"I have a sense of what this is building up into," Mother muttered.

"Maybe you're right. Maxx said that journeymen who have a pacted partner can live together - not in a room by themselves, that's reserved for spouses, but with just two other people, usually another pacted couple. In a lot of ways I think that that's probably the best thing for Maxx and I right now - we'd be able to spend more time together, but still wouldn't have too much privacy - we'd have to trade off for it I suppose, one couple staying out for an evening if the other wanted to be able to stay in alone."

"Right," Mother agreed. "Well, I don't think that your Father or I have a problem with that as far as it goes. But we don't think that you're ready to become Maxx's spouse, or a parent, anytime soon. So, in those evenings when you've got the room all to yourselves..."

"I - I feel the need to be with Maxx, in every way," I agreed. "Including the ones that traditionally lead to making babies. But we both realize that we're not ready for that yet - Maxx feels more concerned about not wanting to get me pregnant than I do, I think, and that's saying something." Of course, my parents couldn't know that some of the reasons for Maxx's concerns were... well, 'strange.' "I'd like to have children eventually, but not until I've finished many more years of study, and maybe had a chance to work for a year or two as a journeywoman Healer. So we'll definitely take any precaution necessary towards that end."

"Including taking a short ride on a dragon, if that's necessary?" Mother asked.

I jumped a little, because every reference to dragons has me jumpy lately, (was D'Peerce still lurking around the Hall?) and because I couldn't immediately see the reference. "What - what do you mean by that?"

"Oh..." Mother suddenly looked flustered. "I - I thought that I'd told you about that in our 'you're becoming a woman now' chat. Umm, well, you see - travelling 'between' places on dragon-back, it isn't very good for unborn children really. A lot of women riders have trouble having children, because they get used to going Between anywhere they need to go, and if they take that trip once, before they even realize that they're going to have a baby... then they won't, at least, not that baby."

"Oh." I thought about that. "And - and do girls who aren't riders, who find out that they're pregnant, and feel that they're not ready for a child, do they actually do that to get rid of the problem?"

"Some - some do, yes."

"But those are living souls!"

"I know." Mother wrapped an arm around my shoulders and patted my hand. "But - but I wouldn't presume to judge any woman who made that choice. Her right to make a choice about her body, her life - it's at least as important as the fact of such a small baby getting a chance to come to Pern or not. I can't imagine that any woman makes such a choice lightly - and such a woman, perhaps it's better if her babies aren't among us after all."

I shuddered. "Well, I'll bear that in mind, but I hope I don't have to rely on such a remedy."

"Neither I, baby girl."

"Can - can we go to the gather now?"

"In a few minutes." Mother passed me a small square of cloth, and I realized that I'd been crying again and dabbed at my eyes.

"We'll talk to Maxx's family," Father said. "See if we can convince them to agree to a nice long pact."

"Thank you. Thank you very much." Before I could talk myself out of it, I was out of my chair and threw my arms around my dad.

"It's my pleasure. But - but one other thing, Lizza."

"Yes?" I turned my face up towards him.

Father gave Mother a long look, and then he smiled down at me. "I think that we'll ask that you wait a little while before formalizing the pact - three sevendays, perhaps? And that you and Maxx arrange to come back to Ruatha for that? We can have a little ceremony, and a private Gather to celebrate our two families beginning to come together, and invite relatives from around the West."

I thought about it. "Yeah, I'd like that, and I think that Maxx will appreciate it."

And so we headed out of the Hall to go find my love and his parents at the Gather.


	11. Chapter 11

"I have to say, I'm disappointed," Father said, taking another bite out of his pie. "Everybody raves about Fort Hold bubbly berry pies, and so I try a couple every time I'm down this way, but I never find anything worth running home about." He turned to Maxx. "What do you think, journeyman? Should I start selling small berry pies every day back at the Klah Lounge?"

Maxx looked up from staring at his plate with a dreamy smile. "What, sir?" Somebody at the table giggled before he caught himself. "Yes, sir, actually, I think that would be a great idea, and from my experience, you could definitely improve on these - the tart filling that you like, for instance, and your secret crust recipe. The one thing is, the Klah lounge doesn't tend to serve anything really hot out of the oven, and that's the particular appeal of bubbly pies."

"Yeah, I know that you've never been a big fan of that experience, Father, but maybe you should give it a try," I chimed in.

"Well, thanks for your helpful opinions," Father shot back, rolling his eyes slightly. "Couple of brilliant Healer kids think that they can tell me how to bake a pie..."

There was more laughter around the table, and then Master Whitman half-stood. "Speaking of which, Journeyman Maxx, have you met Master Amiger from South Boll?"

"Umm, no." Maxx got up too. "Should we bring Lizza along for the introductions?"

Whitman considered this. "No, not this time - he gets irritable sometimes at having to give his honor too many times in a row - and to junior apprentices. She'll have her opportunity another time." Whitman smiled apologetically at me. "You don't mind me stealing Maxx away from you for a few minutes, do you?"

"No, that's alright," I said, reaching out to grab Maxx's hand for just a second. "It's a big Gather, after all. Come back when you feel good and ready."

"Hmm, speaking of, I think I'll check to see if anybody has more news from the caravan," Mari's mother said, bustling off in another direction.

"So, Aless," my mother started after a moment of silence around the table. We never got to hear what she was about to ask, though, because something happened that took the entire Gather off guard.

I didn't see where the bronze dragon came from - probably it dropped off the Fort fire-heights and glided down. But we all heard him land on the roof of the Harper Hall quadrangle, looking a bit incongrously small against the length of the building. I thought I could make out the figure of a rider jumping down from the dragon's neck, and stepping up to the edge of the roof. But there was no mistaking the cry across the Gather meadow.

"Apprentice Lizza!"

I hesitated only a moment before getting up. Mother grabbed for my arm. "Lizza, what's this about?"

"I... I don't know," I said. "But if a rider calls for me, I must answer, mustn't I?" That was true enough, even if what was guiding my choice was more fear than duty. I didn't want to find out what D'Peerce would do or say next, if I kept him waiting.

"I'm coming too," Aless said, falling into step next to me as I left the table and headed back to the Hall. "What about Maxx?"

"I don't want him anywhere near a rider," I whispered back. "Good timing for me that D'Peerce waited until he left with Whitman."

"He'll have heard," Aless said. "What if he comes after us?"

"I... I don't know," I muttered, looking around - and believe it or not, a possible answer to that problem showed up - Mari, hurrying towards us from the gather crowd.

"Lizza, what's going on? Is that a rider calling for you?"

"I think that it's D'Peerce," I said. "Don't know what he wants, but I think that I need to confront him alone - as in, without Maxx. Can you just make sure that he doesn't come after me? He and Master Whitman were going to talk to some other Healer."

"I - I'll try," Mari said. "It's a pretty big Gather..."

"Aless," I said, turning to him. "You can help her."

"I could," Aless said. "But do you know the way up to the roof from inside the Harper Hall quadrangle wing?"

"No," I admitted, and thought about that. If Aless was able and willing to explain that route, he'd just have started saying it, and getting to the roof myself on my own power ould be important in establishing myself as not being D'Peerce's inferior. Plus, that would be a way of staying ahead of Maxx even if Mari didn't manage to intercept him. "Okay, let's go."

#

I didn't really pay attention to the corridors and stairs that Aless led me through once we were back inside the Hall gates. The last steps were narrow, and emerged from a little triangular frame on top of the roof.

D'Peerce and his dragon - what was his name? - turned to face me. "My duty to you, Wingleader D'Peerce," I said as confidently as I could. "But this has to stop, now."

The rider's face turned into a snarling mess. "Really? And just what would 'this' be, milady Apprentice?"

"Your attentions to me, Wingleader." I said. "I respect your calling, but would not wish you to..." My attempt to find an assertive yet diplomatic way to make my point failed me at that point.

"Do you believe, as your mother does, that my motivations are those of passionate desire?" D'Peerce drawled.

"No. I believe what you told me, that you are looking for dangerous strangers on Pern, and you think that one of them saved my life," I said. "But I can't help you find any such people." That was true enough. I simply couldn't bring myself to do that.

"Indeed? And who is your friend, Lady Apprentice?"

"My name is Aless, and I'm an apprentice harper here," Aless said.

"Yes, but you haven't always been here, have you, Apprentice Aless?" D'Peerce asked. "When I first came to Ruatha, you would have been there, though I didn't get a good look at you that day."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Because I paid attention to all the Ruathans who were candidates to the Hatching."

"You arranged for us all to be Searched," I accused him. "The dragons didn't say that they wanted me as a candidate - it was the riders who were making the decisions that day."

"We used the opportunity that we had to investigate the young people of Ruatha," D'Peerce agreed casually, as if this didn't profane the honor of the Weyr, and the hatching traditions of the dragons themselves.

"So - if the two of us go down those stairs and ignore you at the Gather," Aless said, pointing at the door, "what's the next opportunity that you're going to take to investigate us?"

"You're not going to go down those stairs," D'Peerce told him.

"No?" Aless headed back, and I followed him, not seeing any better course than following this bluff - to find out just what D'Peerce's next move would be.

When we found out, I wished I didn't know.

The bronze dragon came at us first, knocking me aside with a wingstroke and pinning Aless flat to the roof on his stomach with a single foreclaw - not hurting him, as far as I could tell, but restraining him so that he couldn't possibly slip away. I tried to rush forward, not even sure what I could do to help, but felt strong arms seizing me from behind, and knew that they were D'Peerce's. I struggled a little but found myself just as impotent as Aless. "What... what are you..." I managed to mutter as he spun me around and pushed me forward.

"I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Lizza," D'Peerce growled. "If you had confessed about your friend, I would have spared you the pain. But there's no other way to show people the truth."

"The... the pain?" What I was seeing now was blurry at first, and I tried to blinke the tears away from my irritated eyes. Then I realized that I was looking down over the edge of the building towards the Gather square, and that more people had come to watch, not getting too close.

I couldn't tell if they could see Spakinth pinning Aless with his talon, but they were obviously staring at a dragonrider about to throw an apprentice girl off the roof.

"Just - just what is me falling down there supposed to show anybody?"

"Nothing, by itself. But when I bring your friend Aless down to you, and he uses his dark powers to heal you, like he did before, then everybody will know what he is."

Oh, no... I thought, as I realized the entire half-shelled plan. Of course, if Maxx actually did get to me in time, he certainly would use his powers to help me, no matter if D'Peerce was right there and watching, runing his own life in the process. If he didn't... then I would be dead.

My mind raced as I tried to think myself a way out of this mess. I couldn't overpower D'Peerce. I couldn't slip away from him. More than anything else, I knew that I could never hope to reason with him - he was convinced that he was right, even down to the detail about Aless being the stranger, and had closed off his mind to anything else.

I was completely out of decent cards to play.

There was a piteous sound off to the side and behind us, and I turned around, wanting to say something reassuring to Aless so that he could bear up with a little more dignity. But Aless was staring stoically back at us. It was the bronze dragon who appeared to be in distress.

"I know, I know, Spakinth," D'Peerce said out loud, which seemed odd for a rider. Maybe he was so crazy that he'd forgotten that he didn't need to talk to his own dragon out loud. "I didn't tell you much about this part, because I knew it would upset you - but it's the only way to catch the foul little Thread-boy."

_Help me, Spakinth!_ I thought. _I know that your friend D'Peerce isn't acting like himself. It's not his fault, but you'll both regret it for the rest of your lives if he goes through with this. He's got it all wrong - Aless is not a thread-man or a stranger from the skies or anything, he's as human as I am. He won't be able to heal me if D'Peerce throws me off the roof. Please, you've got to do something._

Spakinth moved, letting Aless go, and hurried over towards us. "Wait a second, you don't have to..." D'Peerce muttered, and then concentrated on trying to push me off the roof before his dragon arrived. This time, I struggled like a wild animal, putting every scrap of strength that I could into staying on the roof.

And I did. I was so focused on staying on that I only had a brief impression of Spakinth sweeping D'Peerce over the edge. I think that he was trying to carefully hold his rider on his foreleg, but I can't really be sure of that.

I heard a soft 'pop' from down below as I backed further away and scrambled over to where Aless lay. "Are - are you alright?" I asked.

"Y-yes, but listen."

I listened, and heard a new sound just starting - very faint and far away, carried on the wind. Very high-pitched notes, like the shortest and thinnest pipes that Harpers play - incredibly beautiful and sad. "What - what does it mean?" I asked.

"It means that the dragons are mourning one of their own."

"Oh." Regret for poor Spakinth warred inside of me with a shameful kind of relief.

By the time I helped Aless to his feet and we made our way back to the stairs, Journeywoman Karalinn was heading up the other way. "Lizza - it's Aless, right? What happened? Are you both okay?"

"We're - shaken, but not harmed, I think," Aless said. "And I kinda want to put off talking about it for as long as possible - which may not be long, I think."

"Yes," I agreed. "What happened to the rider and the dragon, Karalinn?"

"They're not still up there?"

Oh, right. If she'd been hurrying through the hall to get up to the stairs, Karalinn wouldn't have seen any of the final climax. My interest in conversation with her dropped to a new low. "No, they're... they're definitely not."

#

We ended up in one of the upstairs rooms just above the dining hall, where the Harper Craftmasters lived and worked. Headwoman Andraia made up hot klah and then mulled wine, (the wine dosed with just a bit of fellis, not enough to really make me sleepy but to help me relax.) Maxx was brought in, and my parents, and the Masterhealer and Masterharper. I told them a slightly edited version of the scene with D'Peerce - basically censoring anything that would point towards the existence of the strangers being more than a crazy delusion, and explaining my prompt attendance to his summons as just a sign of respect for a Bronze rider.

"What - what happened to them, after Spakinth went over the side of the building?" I finally asked. "I don't think that he was attacking D'Peerce, just wanted to help me, and seperate us."

"I think I'd agree with that," Father said. "The riders was clinging to his dragon's front leg, but appeared to be in no particular danger from the talons. And - and Spakinth was flapping his wings, but seemed to realize that he didn't have enough vertical clearance to take flight safely."

"Oh no," I muttered. "Did they crash into the Gather?"

"As far as I know, a dragon will never crash-land, Lizza," the Masterharper said. "The instinct to avoid danger by going 'between' is too strong."

"So they jumped 'between'?" I asked, not getting it. "But if they're safe in the Weyr, then why did the other dragons..."

"They're not safe," Masterhealer Wheeler said. "That instinct can be deadly if it's not used correctly. The dragon needs to have a firm mental picture of where he's going 'between' to in the moment he disappears - or she, in the case of a female dragon. If a dragon jumps between in a panic, without having a safe place to go..."

"They're stuck in 'between'?" I whispered, horrified again. I remembered the cold of between on dragonback, and the darkness, and the numbness so bad it hardly even felt like I had a body. For a few seconds, long enough to repeat a few words of a rhyme, it was bad enough, but to know that you'd never get back out to the world of light...

"Not anymore, really," Wheeler whispered. "They're just - gone. I... I've heard of a few times when another dragon - a queen, particularly - would jump into 'between' to try to save another lost dragon. Sometimes that works - but more often the second dragon is lost too."

"Doesn't pay off," the Masterharper muttered under his breath.

"So, what happens to us next?" Aless asked after a long moment.

"That's largely up to you," Wheeler said. "You're physically fit to go back to the Gather, but I'm not sure if you want that. And - and one thing that you'll probably need to fit into your schedule is speaking with other riders."

"Yes," the Masterharper said. "D'Nan will probably come himself, to find out what happened to D'Peerce and Spakinth."

"I'm inclined to give D'Nan a piece of my mind," Mother muttered, tapping her foot angrily.

"I know," I told her. "But just be careful that you don't cast a mortal slight on his honor or call him a liar." Mother stared at me, and then chuckled weakly.

"I think that we may need to plan carefully for just what we tell the good Weyrleader," Father said. "And who says it - perhaps we could sound Lord Holder Brooks out, see how he feels about this 'stranger' nonsense. And the craft masters currently in your halls."

"Just what did you have in mind, Master Parker?" Wheeler asked him.

#

The Weyrleader of Fort didn't show up at the Harper Hall by himself either. We were waiting in the Master's meeting room, and gasped a little as I saw all the riders file in. Then I remembered to get to my feet as a sign of respect. There were two other Weyrleaders, three Wingleaders from Fort, and Moreta. Then the other side proceeded in and took their seats - the Masterhealer, Masterharper, seven other craft masters, (including my father and Whitman,) and one Lord Holder.

"I only came here to hear Apprentice Lizza's testimony regarding the passing of Wingleader D'Peerce," D'Nan started. "It appears that there may be other business to settle, but I would like to start there."

I cleared my throat. "Do - do I need to start with D'Peerce's visit to Ruatha Hold, five seven-days back, the day of the fight in the Klah Lounge? That was the day that I met him."

"No," D'Nan said. "I don't think that that's important."

"Wait a second." Moreta leaned forward and gave her weyrmate a look. "I think that I'd like to know more about this."

I had to fight not to show a smile. D'Nan might regret the fact that Moreta was here. Probably it hadn't been his idea in the first place - since a rider and a wingleader was dead, she wanted to be here to hear the reasons why. Well... I wasn't going to tell her the whole truth, but probably more of it than D'Nan wanted her to hear.

"I haven't heard about this either," Lord Brooks said.

"Well, the fight wasn't anything important," I said. "Two customers had an argument over a debt of marks, and started to settle it with an impromptu knife duel. I was knocked down and had some sauce spilled over my tunic. But somehow D'Peerce got the idea that one of the men was sure that he'd stabbed me. He came to our quarters are Ruatha, and asked me if anybody strange had come up to me while I was lying on the floor, told us a story about a metal egg landing in the mountains years ago. And - and he asked me to remove my tunic, so that he could check my skin for a glowing handprint. Mother didn't like that, and she respectfully asked him to leave."

"So it's the thread-men again, is it?" Moreta sighed. "D'Nan, I thought we agreed that dragonmen should not waste their time on such stories - not when actual thread is going to be falling in less than two Turns."

D'Nan managed to avoid responding to the Weyrwoman. "And so, since you chose to begin with it, I suppose that D'Peerce's interest in a stranger who might have healed you has something to do with what happened to him today?"

"He - he was trying to prove that the stranger was me!" Aless burst out. "He told Spakinth to trap me with his claw, and he was about to throw Lizza off the Harper Hall roof. Said that he would let me down to heal her, to save her life... but I knew that I couldn't. He even said that he'd been watching me, watching us, when we were up at Fort Weyr for the hatching, and..."

"This is my son, Weyrleader," Master Whitman said. "A third-year apprentice with the Harpers. He was witness to what happened today."

"Just how is it that the two apprentices ended up on the roof with D'Peerce and Spakinth?" Moreta asked.

"He - he called for us," I said. "I knew that the Wingleader was here around the Hall - I noticed him at the dinner yesterday when Maxx walked the tables to become Journeyman, and at the Hold last evening. Spakinth landed on the roof during the gather and called for me, so I came to him. And Aless came as well because he knew the way up to the roof, as I did not."

"How did you avoid getting thrown off the roof, apprentice?" one of the Wingleaders snapped, and several of the other riders glared at him.

"I... after D'Peerce threatened to hurt me, Spakinth started to make distressed sounds. Sort of rumbly squeaks and low whines. So I - I spoke to him, I pleaded with him to not help D'Peerce carry out his plan. He - he let Aless go, and D'Peerce and I struggled. Spakinth sort of carried his rider over the edge of the building, and that's all I saw."

"I saw the bronze dragon attempt to take flight, but he did not have clearance, and went between at the last possible moment," Wheeler said. "A few seconds later, we could hear the keening of the dragons of the Weyr."

"I see," Moreta said. "Then, it appears that D'Peerce fell prey to an insidious obsession that took over his better judgement and that led to his death, and the downfall of a blameless dragon. Unless any here would claim that he had the right of it, and that this boy, Apprentice Aless of the Harper Hall, is a monster who must be found out and put to the fire?"

Again, I had to avoid smiling, for this was a no-win choice for D'Nan and the other riders. If they backed down, they were admitting that chasing any strangers was folly. If they pressed the case, they'd have to prove that Aless wasn't an ordinary human, which he very much was.

"No," D'Nan said, smiling around the room. "I do still believe in being vigilant against other threats from above than thread, but D'Peerce's fate serves as a warning of the dangers of carrying vigilance too far."

"And we can all agree that watching my daughter's life to see if mysterious strangers with healing powers are somehow connected to her would be carrying vigilance too far?" Father asked him.

"Yes, certainly," D'Nan said. "Is there anything else that anybody here would like clarified, before we leave? I'm sure that all of you want to get back to the festivities outside, and we riders have our own gathering up in the Weyr to attend tonight?"

"The thoughts of all in Hold and Hall go with you all," the Masterharper vowed. "When a dragon passes between forever, it is not only dragonkind and the riders who mourn. There is precious little joy out in the Gather square tonight, I'm sure, and I shall personally lead the host in songs of sorrow - and of noble duty."

"Thank you, Harper," Moreta muttered.

"Yes, we all regret Spakinth's passing," Lord Brooks said. "If it isn't indelicate to raise the point - how are the weyrlings from the last Hatching faring?"

"Well enough, my lord," D'Nan said.

"It will be many weeks before they can practice flight," Moreta added.

"And - was it this D'Peerce's wing that led Search at Ruatha before the Hatching?" Brooks pressed. "I only ask, as we noticed how many youths of Ruatha..."

"D'Peerce's wing was one of two to conduct search at Ruatha," D'Nan agreed. "I stood by the results of that search, but perhaps he had other reasons than the dragon's choice - another of his hunts for strangers. Wingleader R'Wit and his Wingseconds will be questioned to see if they had anything to do with that indiscretion. In any event, though not as many of your youths were searched, more impressed than the Ruathan contingent. I do not feel that you have much right to complain of ill treatment."

"Yes," Moreta agreed. "The only ones hurt by D'Peerce's connivance are the Ruathan children like Lizza and Aless, who were taken to the Weyr and had their hopes raised to no use, and the Weyr staff who had to attend to all of them. The dragons know who their mates are."

Lord Brooks nodded without volunteering anything else, and the room emptied, until it was just myself, Aless, and our fathers. "It occurs to me that I could ask you about Maxx and Izabella," Whitman whispered.

"I think it's best if you don't know the answers," I muttered back, and Master Whitman nodded back.

#

So, that's all for this journal, I think. Father has agreed to take it back to Ruatha and keep it safe, unopened. Better that I not give any of my fellows here at the Hall a chance to read my personal thoughts. D'Nan and the dragonriders are going to back off, I believe, but they won't stop looking. And I'm starting to worry about Mechall, up in the weyr with Guerinth and all of those thread-man-hunters.

Hopefully Maxx can help me forget to worry.


End file.
